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THE 



Pilgrim Fathers 

OF NEW ENGLAND 

AND THEIR 

PURITAN SUCCESSORS 



BY 

JOHiN BROWN, B.A., D.D. 

'I 

AUTHOR OF "JOHN BUNYAN, HIS LIFE, TIMES AND WORK' 
WITH INTRODUCTION BY 

Rev. a. E. DUNNING, D.D. 

Editor of The Congregationalist 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL SKETCHES 
BY CHARLES WHYMPER 




FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 

New York Chicago Toronto 

Publishers of Evangelical Literature 



\ 



COPYRIGHT, 1895 
BY 

Fleming H. Revell Company 



/^ c 



INTRODUCTION TO THE AMERICAN 
EDITION. 



Every loyal American ought to know the principles 
and motives which led to the founding of this Re- 
public. These cannot be understood without an ac- 
quaintance with the men and women who first came 
to New England. Their work was greater than be- 
ginning a nation. Dr. John Fiske says: "Among 
the most significant events which prophesied the final 
triumph of the English over the Roman idea, per- 
haps the most significant — the one which marks most 
incisively the new era — was the migration of English 
Puritans across the Atlantic Ocean." 

But the character of these pioneers of New England 
was largely formed in old England and in Holland ; 
and it can best be interpreted by a sympathetic stu- 
dent of their history who has lived long among the 
scenes of their earlier years. For this task no one 
living is better fitted than Dr. John Brown, of Bed- 
ford, Eng. For more than thirty years he has been 
the beloved minister of the church at Bunyan meet- 



II INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. 

ing, in that ancient town. The first edition of his 
elaborate biography of John Bunyan, published about 
ten years ago, was exhausted in a few weeks, and suc- 
cessive editions since that time have not only greatly 
increased the interest in the life and works of the im- 
mortal dreamer, but have spread the fame of his 
biographer on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Dr. John Brown is one of the best known and most 
honored of English Nonconformist ministers, and one 
of the most trusted authorities on the important his- 
torical topics he has treated. His broad sympathies 
with all honest men of every denominational name 
have made his judgment impartial, while his popular 
literary style and his enthusiasm as a student of his- 
tory have clothed with life the facts he has discovered 
in many dry and dusty MSS. He is skillful in un- 
raveling facts and fiction long woven together by 
custom, in showing how both have taken hold of 
present life, and in giving due weight to fact while 
he puts fiction aside. His address on the Historic 
Episcopate, which he .delivered in London in 1891, 
as president of the Congregational Union of Eng- 
land and Wales, is one of the most incisive and con- 
vincing utterances yet made on that topic, and is still 
extensively quoted. He gave the first address at the 
reception of the International Congregational Council 
in London in the same year, and was one of the most 
prominent Englishmen in the deliberations of that 
body. His repeated yisits to the United States have 
made him widely known and loved in this country. 
In October, 1892, he represented the Congregational 
LTnion of England and Wales at the National Council 
of Congregational Churches in Minneapolis. 

Durino- all his mature life Dr. Brown has been in- 



IXTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION, iii 

terested in the Pilgrims and Puritans who first settled 
New England. He has inherited and manifested 
their spirit, though with none of the intolerance 
which sometimes qualified the Puritans. Living 
within easy reach of the homes of the Pilgrims, he 
has familiarized himself with every nook and corner 
in which their conventicles used to be held. His ac- 
cess to both public and private libraries of England 
and Holland, and his extensive acquaintance with his- 
torians and antiquarians, have given him rare oppor- 
tunities to learn the details of the lives of those once 
obscure men whose unselfish loyalty to great prin- 
ciples of religion and liberty were destined to make 
them famous to coming generations: and he has 
availed himself of these opportunities to make the 
Pilgrims of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
live anew, and to introduce them so fittingly to their 
descendants as to give fresh interest to their prin- 
ciples and new strength to the virtues they have be- 
queathed to us. 

Dr. Brown has followed the Pilgrims eagerly to 
their earliest homes in America, and has studied their 
footprints and memorials along the shores of New 
England. He was an intimate friend and correspond- 
ent of Dr. Henry M. Dexter, the foremost authority 
in this country on Pilgrim history and life; and he is 
hardly less familiar with the literature on this subject 
in our libraries than with that on the other side of the 
ocean. 

The story of the Pilgrims has all the elements of a 
fascinating romance. When it is read in the light of 
what they have produced and in the spirit of sympathy 
which appreciates and enjoys the religious and civil 
liberty we inherit, it is fitted beyond most uninspired 



IV INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. 

records, to kindle exalted ideas of citizenship and to 
stimulate young and old to self-denying service of our 
country and of mankind. The years of perplexity 
and persecution in England during which honest yeo- 
men and their families met in secret and worshiped 
God and entered into covenant to live worthy of 
him ; the escape to Holland and the experiences which 
there shaped their purpose to begin a new life in a 
new world; the struggles with stormy seas, with the 
wilderness and winter cold; the encounters with In- 
dians ; the sturdy manhood which courted loneliness 
and defied starvation and death, es'.eeming loyalty to 
God and to conscience above all other ambitions ; the 
wonderful providences which changed defeat into 
victory, which turned the wilderness into a garden, 
and made the humble Plymouth Colony the beginning 
of a great nation standing proudly in the forefront of 
Christian civilization — all these are materials which 
give to the beginnings of the youngest of the nations 
an interest unsurpassed by the ruins of the oldest. 

The characteristics of New England life and the 
impress it has given to the whole country cannot be 
rightly appreciated without a knowledge of the first 
settlers and the sources whence they drew the inspira- 
tion to turn from the civilization of Europe and to 
make for themselves a higher civilization in a new 
land. The genius of American self-government was 
born in the minds of the Pilgrims, began to be real- 
ized in Plymouth Colony, and joined itself to men 
of like spirit and love of liberty controlled by law, as 
they faced the difficulties of organizing a new nation 
and overcame its foes; till they became fitted for the 
great struggle by which they separated themselves 
from their mother country and established themselves 



INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN EDITION. v 

a people free and independent. It is a most welcome 
evidence of the strong ties that bind England and 
America together that an Englishman has here 
chronicled the noblest chapter in our early history, 
with so genuine an insight into its character and 
dignity that in both nations it will be read with equal 
interest. The Pilgrim spirit has reproduced itself in 
mountain and valley and on the prairie all the way 
from Massachusetts Bay to the Golden Gate. It has 
helped to unite in high aims people of widely differ- 
ent histories and languages, as the}' have together laid 
foundations in new lands for this rapidly growing Re- 
public. This same spirit is ever bringing nearer the 
two peoples which once were one, which drew apart 
for a time, but which can never forget that they have 
the same ancestry, the same language and literature, 
the same inherent love of liberty, the same purpose 
to serve mankind, and that the hand of divine Provi- 
dence is directing them to the same ways of fulfilling 
that purpose. May this book help to cement more 
closely these ties of kindred and service between two 
great nations which rejoice in the same inheritance. 

A. E. Dunning. 
Boston, October, 1895. 



DE MINIMIS MAXIMA. 



Great things from small, for God works ever so, 
That so behind all causes he may stand 
Revealed omnipotent. 

J. H. B. Masterman. 



Well vi^orthy to be magnified are they 
Who, with sad hearts, of friends and country took 
A last farewell, their loved abodes forsook. 
And hallowed ground in which their Fathers lay; 
Then to the new-found World explored their way. 
That so a Church, unforced, uncalled to brook 
Ritual restraints, within some sheltering nook 
Her Lord might worship and His Word obey 
In Freedom. 

Wordsworth. — Ecclesiastical Sonnets. 



PREFACE. 



Placing in the forefront of this work, what an EHzabethan 
writer called ' a brief ingresse to the Christian reader,' it 
may be well to state that it is now more than forty years 
since the latest previous history of the Pilgrim Fathers, 
printed on this side of the Atlantic, was given to the 
public. Therefore, as might be expected, since the appear- 
ance of Mr. Bartlett's book in 1853, important contributions 
have been made to the literature of the subject, which have 
had the effect of placing it in clearer light and giving it 
fuller meaning. Notably the discovery in 1855 of the 
original manuscript of Governor Bradford's History of 
Plymouth Plantation may be regarded as a matter of prime 
importance. 

It was known that such a history had been written, 
although never published, for it was freely used by 
Nathaniel Morton in his New Ettgland's Memorial, pub- 
lished in 1669 ; Thomas Prince, in the preface to the first 
volume of his Annals, printed in 1736, had cited it as one 
of his manuscript authorities ; and Governor Hutchinson 
had also used it in the preparation of the second volume of 
his History of Massachusetts in 1767, he being the last man 
who, till the present century, was known to have seen it. 
While in the possession of Prince, who died in 1758, the 
manuscript was deposited in the New England Library in 
the tower of the Old South Church in Boston, from which. 



6 PREFACE. 

after the siege of the city, it mysteriously disappeared, and 
as time went on, was given up as hopelessly lost. 

The next step in the history brings us to the year 1845, 
when Samuel Wilberforce, afterwards Bishop of Oxford, 
published a History of the Protestant Episcopal Chirch in 
America. In the preparation of this work he made 
researches for original documents in the library of the 
Bishop of London's palace at Fulham, from one of which 
he made several extracts, the references for which were 
given in the footnotes. The book became fairly well 
known, and passed through other editions, but no one 
seems to have taken special note of it for about ten years 
after its first publication. At length, in the month of 
February, 1855, the Rev. John S. Barry happened to con- 
sult it when engaged upon the first volume of his History 
of Massachusetts, when he was struck again and again by 
reading in the extracts from the Fulham MS. passages he 
remembered to have seen cited as from Bradford's History 
by Morton and Prince. He at once took the volume to 
his friend, Charles Deane, Esq., of the Massachusetts 
Historical Society, to whom he communicated his sus- 
picion that Wilberforce's extracts were taken from the 
manuscript which had been so long missing, and which, 
after all, might possibly still be found in the Bishop of 
London's library. This turned out to be the case. Here 
at last was the History of Plymotcth Plantation, written by 
William Bradford, one of the Pilgrim Fathers, and after- 
wards largely used by Morton and Prince. How it came 
to be transferred from the library in the tower of the Old 
South Church to that in the episcopal palace at Fulham 
can only be matter of conjecture, but the probability is 
that it was brought over by the English soldiers when the 
Revolutionary War was ended. 

This invaluable and interesting record being thus, 
happily, once more brought to light, I have made use 



PREFACE. 7 

of it in all those portions of the history for which it is the 
sole authority, supplementing it by such State Papers, 
Domestic and Colonial, as throw light on the subject, and 
also by such other MSS. as have in recent years become 
available for historical purposes, 

I have been greatly helped also by many of the 
numerous works issued in recent years both in this 
country and in America on the history of New England. 
To the more important of these I have acknowledged my 
obligations in the references given ; but where one has been 
making notes extending over a lengthened period it is not 
always easy to remember the source from which many 
points of detail were taken. If, therefore, I have not 
always made due acknowledgment, I can only crave 
lenient indulgence beforehand. 

In the hope that the re-telling of an old story, under 
the new lights of a later time, may not be without interest, 
instruction, and stimulus for ourselves, I leave these pages 
to the kindly judgment of such readers as love to linger 
over the record of brave deeds wrought by brave men in 
bygone days. 

JOHN BROWN. 



The Manse, Bedford, 
July 25, 1895. 




BOSTON. 
{From a sketch by Charles Whymper.) 



CONTENTS. 



I. 

"' Precursors of the Pilgrim Fathers 

II. 



:^ 



CROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD 



III. 



'/'^JBlTGINNINGS OF CHURCH LiFE 



15 



40 



CONTENTS. 



IV. 
The Exiles in Holland no 

V. 

The Writings of John Robinson 136 

VI. 
Where lies the Land? 158 

VII. 
The Sailing of the Mayflower 184 

VIII. 
Plymouth Plantation 209 

IX. 
At the End of Seven Years ..... 238 

X. 

Arrival of New Neighbours. 265 

XI. 

Massachusetts Bay ani^/ Connecticut Valley . . 295 

XII. 
The United Colonies r . 327 




OLD KITCHEN, GUILDHALL, BOSTuN. 
{From a sketch by Chari.es Whympek.) 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The old Manor House, Scroobv. From a sketch by 

Charles Whytnper ...... Frontispiece 

Boston. From a sketch by Charles Whymper ... 9 

Old Kitchen, Guildhall, Boston. From a sketch by 

Charles Whymper . . . . . . . . 11 

SCROOBY — View fro.m the River. Frojn a sketch by Charles 

Whymper ......... 14 

Governor Br.adford's Cottage at Austerfield. 
I. Cottage. 2. Steps to cellar. 3. Cellar. From sketches by 
Charles Whymper . . . . . . . .41 

Ancient Pews in Scrooby Church .... 47 

Site of the old Stocks, Scrooby Churchyard. From 

a sketch by Charles Whymper ...... 49 

South Doorway, Austerfield Church ... 67 



12 LIST OF ILL US TEA TIONS. \ 

PAGE 

SCROOBY Manor House. From a sketch by Charles Whymper 72 

The Bridge, Gainsborough „ „ „ 73 

Richard Bernard. From an old print .... 79 

The old Hall, Gainsborough. From sketches by Charles 

Whymper ......... 89 

The Guildhall, Boston, i. Cells in which the Pilgrims 
were confined. 2. Passage and stairs leading to cells. 
3. Guildhall, front view ....... loi 

The Stable of Scrooby Manor House. (Probable place 

of meeting in 1607.) From sketches by Charles Whymper . iii 

Boston Stump and Market-Place. From a sketch by 

Charles Whymper . . . . . . . .136 




> ? 



THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 
I. 

PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 

The sailing of the Mayflower from Plymouth to New 
England, in 1620, was one of those epoch-making events 
in history which are at once the fruit of the past and the 
seed of the future. The hundred exiles who in simple 
heroic fashion crossed the Atlantic in their little barque of 
a hundred and eighty tons, while merely aiming at 
freedom of worship for themselves and their children, 
were really bringing to new and pregnant issue the long 
and resolute struggle of centuries. We can see now that 
they were almost unconsciously pointing the way to a 
broader, freer life for the English-speaking people on both 
sides of the sea. For the time in which they lived was, 
in a special sense, a time of transition. In the Tudor 
days, only recently ended, England had been under the 
personal government of monarchs who, though not un- 
influenced by the opinion of their people, were yet 
practically absolute and irresponsible. Other forces, how- 
ever, were now coming into play, and the nation was to 
make its way to a fuller life as a community of free self- 
CToverninof men. This transition from mediaeval to modern 
life was brought about by the combined action of religious 
enthusiasm with the spirit of personal independence. 



i6 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

The modern movement of government by the people began, 
not, as is sometimes supposed, with the eighteenth century 
but with the sixteenth, and was rehgious in its origin. 
It was, indeed, the child of the Reformation. For the 
two principles by which the power of Rome was assailed 
were, free inquiry as opposed to the absolute authority of 
the Church, and the universal priesthood of all believing 
men as opposed to that of a clerical caste/of priests. 
When these two principles came to be applied, they 
proved to be farther-reaching than even their own advo- 
cates realised at first. The principle of free inquiry turned 
out to mean more than the mere right of the iaity to 
read the Bible for themselves, it meant the right of free 
and independent search in every department of human 
thought and life ; and the universal priesthood of believers 
carrying with it, as it did, the power of the people in 
the government of the Church, carried with it also the 
principle of the sovereignty of the people in the govern- 
ment of the State. 

On the Continent, democracy, as springing out of the 
Reformation, was arrested by the power of the princes, 
and delayed for centuries ; in England also it came into 
conflict with the aristocratic forces of the time, and was 
defeated for long in its struggle against ancient laws and 
institutions ; but carried across the Atlantic by the 
Pilgrim Fathers, it there found a virgin soil in which it 
spread its roots freely, and grew vigorously. American 
self-government was not the sudden birth of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. For a century and a half the idea 
and political habits from which its strength was drawn had 
been gradually developed. It really sprang from the 
organisation which the Pilgrim Fathers gave to the first 
colony, an organisation which determined the shape and 
character of the State constitutions which followed.^ 

' Rise of Modern Democracy. By Charles Borgeaud, LL.D. 1894. 



V 



PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 17 

The modern movement in the direction of freedom and 
the sovereignty of the people being, as we have said, 
religious in its origin, can best be understood in connection 
with the struggle for faith and freedom made from earliest 
times. Steady and stifling as had been the pressure of 
the priestly system of Rome, it never quite succeeded in 
crushing out all aspirations after liberty or all strenuous 
endeavour after a purer faith. Again and again there 
were those who, weary of superstition and unreality, freed 
themselves from ecclesiastical bondage, and set forth in 
search of the true fountains of life. It is as a continuation 
of this honoured succession that the Pilgrim Fathers of 
New England take their rightful place. It may be well, 
therefore, to set their story in its true ligiit at the outset 
by tracing the roots and beginnings of their movement 
in the generations which went before them. 

There may have been others, but looking back through 
the dim mists of time, the earliest pioneers of independent 
thought we come upon on English soil are thirty weavers 
in the diocese of Worcester, who were summoned before 
the council of Oxford as far back as A.d. 1165. William 
of Newburgh, in Yorkshire, in that chronicle of his which 
he wrote at the request of Ernald, the abbot of the neigh- 
bouring monastery of Rievaulx, tells us that when these 
people were under examination, they answered that they 
were Christians, and reverenced the teachings of the 
apostles. Inasmuch, however, as they made light of 
sacraments and priestly power, they were condemned, 
were scourged and branded as heretics, and then driven 
out of the city, to perish in the winter cold ; and thus, says 
the chronicler, the pious firmness of this severity not only 
cleansed the realm of England from the pestilence which 
had now crept in, but also prevented it from creeping in 
again. But as at the Assize of Clarendon, held some time 
after, Henry II. forbade any one to receive a?iy of the sect 

C 



1 



i8 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

of the renegades who had been excommunicated at 
Oxford, it is not so clear that the realm was cleansed 
from this so-called pestilence. And as at the same time 
he also caused an oath to be taken of all sheriffs that they 
would see to the execution of these commands, and that 
'all his officers, dapifers and barons, together with all 
knights and freeholders, should be sworn to the same 
effect,' ^ it would appear that the opinions of these people 
were not confined to the diocese of Worcester, but were 
widely sympathised with elsewhere through the kingdom. 
These outcasts who declared themselves to be believers in 
the Holy Trinity, in the canonical Scriptures, and also ' in 
the one true Church,' but who repudiated the catholic 
doctrine of sacraments and rejected the ecclesiastical 
ceremonies, seem to have been the first to greet the morn, 

Or rather, rose the day to antedate, 

By striking out a sohtary spark, 

When all the land with midnight gloom was dark.'^ 

How the seed grew secretly and the leaven worked 
silently during the next century and a half it may not be 
easy to show. But such secret, silent working there must 
have been. Our countryman, William of Occam, born 
about 1270, was excommunicated by the Pope in the early 
part of the fourteenth century, for asserting in dialogues 
and tractates the freedom of the law of Christ against the 
plenitude of papal power. He maintained the authority of 
Scripture as the supreme arbiter of all things in the 
Church, and sought after that which was eternal as 
opposed to that which is merely of human ordinance. In 
that same century, also, we have in the Vision of Piers 
Ploiviiiaii, a prophet who, though no Lollard, made nought 
of pilgrimages, penances, and oblations, in comparison with 
holiness and charity, appealed to the plainest Scriptural 

^ Camden Society, Assize of Clarendon. 
^ Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Sottnets, xiv. 



PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 19 

truths, and installed reason and conscience as the guides of 
the self-directed soul. Even Chaucer's voice was a voice 
of freedom, and of more or less covert hostility to the 
priestly system of the Church. 

But if to any one man more than another we may trace 
the origin of the Free Church influences most potent in our 
modern life, that one man was John Wickliff of Lutter- 
worth. He not only gave to Hus his ruling ideas, and 
sowed the seeds of Reformation in Germany, but in his own 
land also did much to change the emphasis in religion 
from the ceremonial to the ethical and spiritual. He 
carried the appeal from the organised authority of the 
priesthood to the authority of the Church's Invisible Head. 
As a Reformer his inspiration came from returning to the 
primitive faith. For religious thought must ever return to 
the essential ideas which Jesus created, and every such 
return is the beginning of new life, and so the Founder of 
Christianity remains the most recreative force in the 
religion He founded. 

While John Wickliff and his followers may not have 
been the first to assail priestly pretensions, they appear to 
have been the first to carry out a definitely-organised 
movement in the way of ecclesiastical reform. Wickliff 
contended that the official clergy alone are not the Church, 
for, said he, ' the temple of God is the congregation, living 
religiously, of just men for whom Jesus shed His blood.' 
He held to the free and immediate access of believers to 
the grace of God in Christ ; in other w^ords, to the general 
priesthood of believers. In accordance with these prin- 
ciples, secret assemblies were gathered of those who were 
of like mind in the faith of Christ ; and preachers were 
sent forth, as in 1382 Archbishop Courtenay complained 
in the House of Lords, going through the realm from 
county to county, and from town to town, preaching from 
day to day, not only in churches and churchyards, but also 

C 2 



20 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

in market-places and public thoroughfares. They con- 
tended with great emphasis that for the ministry of the 
Church the Divine call and commission are perfectly 
sufficient ; that the true installation of the preacher is 
that by God Himself. It has been asserted that the 
Lollard movement was premature, and came to an 
untimely end. On the contrary, it may safely be main- 
tained that the life then created never died out, and 
that without the Lollards of the fourteenth century the 
Reformation of the sixteenth would not have been 
possible. Wickliff died in 1384; but seventeen years 
later the preamble of the Act of 1401, for the burning of 
heretics, states that ' divers false and perverse people of a 
certain new sect . . . usurping the office of preaching, do 
perversely and maliciously, in divers places within the 
realm, preach and teach divers new doctrines and wicked 
erroneous opinions ; and of such sect and wicked doctrines 
they make unlawful conventicles.' Even this Act, stern 
and terrible as it was — the first statute that consigned 
Englishmen to the flames for their opinions — was power- 
less to arrest the convictions of earnest men. From a list 
of authenticated trials for heresy, drawn up by Bishop, 
then Canon, Stubbs, at the request of the Royal Com- 
mission on Ecclesiastical Courts (1881-1883), it appears 
that, beginning with the trial of Wickliff, and ending with 
that of William Balowe, who was burned in 1466, more 
than a hundred and twenty persons were tried for heresy — 
even this list being far from complete. 

Thirty years later we still find the movement at work. 
In the registers of the bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury 
is a series of confessions and abjurations extorted from 
various persons by fear of death. While mainly referring 
to pilgrimages, transubstantiation, and other Romish prac- 
tices and doctrines, they indicate at the same time a more 
organised separatism in church life than is usually sup- 



PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 2i 

posed to have existed before the Reformation. These 
extracts belong for the most part to the year 1499, t)ut 
twenty years later, as we find from the register of the 
Bishop of London, Thomas Man was cited for * teachings 
and practices, contrary to the determination of the Holy 
Church.' From the report of this case it appears that the 
defendant had spread his teachings in East Anglia, and 
also in the western counties. As he went westward he 
found 'a great company' who had cast off the super- 
stitions of the time, ' especially at Newbury, where was ' 
{as he confessed) * a glorious and sweet society of faithful 
favourers, who had continued the space of fifteen years 
together,' but who were at last betrayed by an informer, 
and some of them burnt. At Amersham, also, he came 
upon ' a godly and great company of " known men," or 
"just fast men," who had continued in that doctrine and 
teaching for twenty-three years,' this ' congregation of the 
faithful brethren ' being duly organised under the care of 
four principal teachers. This was sixteen years before the 
Act of Supremacy of 1534, which severed the Church of 
England from the See of Rome, and therefore some time 
before the Reformation was an accomplished fact. Nor 
were these the only pre-Reformation witnesses to a purer 
faith and simpler polity, for, as Foxe goes on to tell us, 
' there were secret multitudes who tasted and followed the 
sweetness of God's Holy Word, and whose fervent zeal 
may appear by their sitting up all night in reading and 
hearing.' He speaks, also, of their earnest seekings, their 
burning zeal, their watchings, their sweet assemblies, their 
love and concord, and their godly living. 

Even after the Reformation had come in, being but a 
halting measure, it did not put an end to separate 
gatherings. In the Privy Council Register of Edward VI. 
it is recorded that one Upcharde of Bocking was examined 
touching a certain assembly of some sixty persons, who 



-2 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

had met at his house on a recent Sunday at midday, in 
1551. Sixteen of the sixty were apprehended, who, on 
* being examined, confessed the cause of their assembly 
to be for talk of Scripture, not denying that they had 
refused communion (at the parish church) above two years 
upon very superstitious and erroneous purposes.' In the 
reactionary days of Queen Mary, which came in with 
1553, the Separatists appear to have increased in numbers 
and influence. There were secret gatherings by night in 
Lancashire and in the adjacent county of York, and more 
numerous gatherings still in those eastern counties which 
furnished so large a contingent to the roll of the Marian 
martyrs. Through nearly the whole period of the perse- 
cution a congregation met in Colchester ; and at Much 
Bentley, near to Colchester, there was a company of 
Christian men, who, as an informer tells us, ' assembled 
together upon the Sabbath day in the time of divine 
service, sometimes in one house and sometimes in another, 
and kept their privy conventicles and schools of heresy.' 
There was also a congregation at Stoke, in Suffolk, 'so 
numerous and held together in such mutual concord of 
godliness, that without much ado none well could be 
troubled.' 

But there were two Separatist communities in London 
.^itself, one in Queen Mary's reign and the other in the time 
of Elizabeth, if indeed they were not the same church in 
continuity, which seem to form a link between the 
Protestant martyrs of Mary's time and the Pilgrim Fathers 
themselves. Governor Bradford in his Dialogues tells us 
that ' in the days of Queen Elizabeth there was a separated 
church whereof Mr. Fitz was pastor, and another before 
that in the time of Queen Mary, of which Mr. Rough was 
pastor or teacher, and Cuthbert Symson a deacon, who 
exercised arnong themselves, as other ordinances, so church 
censures, as excommunications, etc' When Bradford, with 



PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 23 

the rest of the exiles from Scrooby, reached Amsterdam in 
1608, there was in the church already established there one 
who had been connected with this London brotherhood. 
This interesting fact, forming a link between the Pilgrim 
Fathers and the brethren of the earlier generation, we 
gather from Henry Ainsworth's Coufiterpoyson (1608). He 
says that John Bolton was an elder of ' that separated 
church whereof Mr. Fitz was pastor in the beginning 
of Queen Elizabeth's reign. This is testified to me by 
one yet living among us who then was member of that 
church.' 

For all that we know concerning the Marian church to 
which Governor Bradford refers, we are indebted to John 
Foxe's Acts and Monuments. From this we gather that 
y the members at first were about forty, that they then rose 
to a hundred, and sometimes to two hundred. Roger 
Sergeant, an informer, who went to their meetings to 
betray them, tells us that they had reading and preaching, 
their minister, at the time he was there, being a Scotchman ; 
' they have also,' he says, ' two deacons that gather money, 
which is distributed to the prisoners, their brethren in the 
Marshalsea, the King's Bench, the Lollards' Tower, and 
in Newgate, and also to the poor that cometh to the 
assembly.' A second informer reports that Cuthbert 
Symson was the officer or deacon who made the collection 
when the reading was done, who was the paymaster of the 
prisoners, and was also the executor of such of the brethren 
as happened to die in gaol or at the stake. One Brooks, 
of Queenhithe, a Salter and a rich man, who went not to the 
parish church, was also a collector and keeper of money 
for the prisoners. From the testimony of these informers 
we learn further that the meetings of the brotherhood were 
held in various places on both sides of the river and at 
varied times, to avoid detection. They addressed each 
other as 'brother,' read together, talked together, and 



24 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

elected their own officers. Towards the end of 1557, after 
many previous hairbreadth escapes, they were arrested iii. 
Islington when met 'for their godly and customable 
exercises of prayer and hearing the Word of God.' John 
Rough, the minister mentioned by Roger Sergeant, and 
Cuthbert Symson, the deacon, were among those arrested 
and sent to Newgate, and ten days later the former was 
burnt at Smithfield. Cuthbert Symson was not put to 
death till the following March, for it was known that he 
had in his possession the official list of the members of the 
church, and he was thrice put to the torture of the rack to 
compel him to give up the names of his brethren. When 
the Constable of the Tower and Sir Roger Cholmley 
demanded these names, Cuthbert Symson says, ' I an- 
swered I would declare nothing. Whereupon I was set in a 
rack of iron the space of three hours, as I judge.' Again and 
again they tried by force to subdue his fortitude, but tried 
in vain ; so on March 28, 1558, this good deacon, standing 
in the succession and true to the spirit of Stephen, was 
sent by way of the Smithfield fires to the martyr's crown. 

Eight months later Mary herself vanished from the 
scene, but on into the reign of Elizabeth this persecuted 
community continued still to hold its meetings. Thomas 
Lever, one of the Protestant exiles who had fled to Zurich, 
describes their fellowship as he found it on his return to 
England in 1559. Writing in August to his friend Bullinger. 
he says : — ' There had been a congregation of faithful 
persons concealed in London during the time of Mary, 
among whom the Gospel was always preached, with the 
pure administration of the sacraments ; but during the 
rigour of the persecution of that Queen they carefully 
concealed themselves, and on the cessation of it under 
Elizabeth they openly continued in the same congregation. 
. . . Large numbers flocked to them, not in churches, but 
in private houses. A.nd when the Lord's Supper was 



PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 25 

administered among them no strangers were admitted 
except such as were kept free from popery, and even from 
the imputation of any evil conduct ; or who, ingenuously 
acknowledging their backsliding and public offence, humbly 
sought pardon and reconciliation in the presence of the 
whole assembly, I have frequently been present on such 
occasions, and have seen many returning with tears, and 
many too, in like manner, with tears receiving such 
persons into communion, so that nothing could be more 
delightful.' ^ 

Of the existence of the church under the pastorate of 
Richard Fitz we have intimations in Bradford and Ains- 
worth, as we have already seen ; there are also references 
to it in a little anonymous volume printed in 161 1 ; but 
in recent years three documents have been found together 
among the State papers which place its existence beyond 
all manner of doubt. The most important of these 
documents is a petition to the Queen for ecclesiastical 
reform. It bears no date, but a reference to the thirteenth 
year of Elizabeth's reign fixes it as belonging to the year 
1 57 1. It is described as from Whitechapel Street, and is 
signed by twenty-seven persons. After having pleaded 
for the removal of all superstitious and unscriptural 
practices in the Church, they described themselves as : 
' We a poor congregation whom God hath separated from 
the Church of England and from the mingled and false 
worshipping therein,' and say that, * as God giveth strength 
at this day we do serve the Lord every Sabbath day in 
houses, and on the fourth day come together weekly to 
use prayer and exercise discipline on them that do deserve 
it, by the strength and true warrant of the Lord God's 
word.' They state also, incidentally, that the maintainers 
of the Canon Law have ' by long imprisonment pined and 

^ Zurich Letters. Second Series, 1 558-1602; pp. 29, 30. Parker 
Society. 



26 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

killed the Lord's servants — as our minister Richard Fitz, 
Thomas Bowland, deacon, one Partryche and Gyles 
Fouler, and besides them a great multitude.' In addition 
to this written petition there is a small printed sheet in 
black letter, entitled The trewe Markes of Chrisfs C/mrch, 
etc., and commencing thus: 'The order of the Privye 
Churche in London, which by the malice of Satan is falsely 
slandered and evil spoken of.' The true marks of Christ's 
Church are declared to be these thx^ee : (i) The glorious 
Word and Evangel are preached freely and purely ; 
(2) The sacraments are administered according to the 
institution and good word of the Lord Jesus ; and (3) 
Discipline is administered agreeably to the same heavenly 
and almighty word. The name ' Richard Fytz, Minister,' 
is appended. The remaining document, also in black 
letter, sets forth reasons for separation from the Anglican 
Church, and prays that ' God may give them strength still 
to strive in suffering under the cross, that the blessed 
Word of our God alone may rule and have the highest 
place.' ^ 

The days in which these Elizabethan Separatists bore 
their testimony on behalf of Scripture truth and a more 
earnest spiritual life, were days when such testimony was 
sorely needed. In many parts of the country the Reforma- 
tion was more a name than a reality. Most of the clergy 
who had celebrated mass in Mary's time continued to 
serve the parishes under Elizabeth. When the Oath of 
Supremacy was tendered after the accession of the latter, 
out of nine thousand four hundred clergy less than a 
hundred and eighty refused it altogether, and of these 
more than half were dignitaries. The majority of those 
who took the oath had probably done the same under 
Henry and Edward, as well as Mary, and quite as probably 

' State Papers, Domestic. Elizabeth. Addenda. \'ol. xx.. No. 107, 
I 571? 



PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 27 

remained the papists they had always been. Passing from 
the clergy to the laity, the effect of priestly influence and 
teaching for generations was but too plainly seen in the 
Romish ideas and practices prevailing. In the north 
especially, large districts had scarcely been even touched 
by the Reformation, and many of the great county 
families with their retainers still held tenaciously by the 
ancient forms of worship. Grindal tells us that when he 
first went down to his province as Archbishop of York, the 
Church he came to scarcely seemed to be the same with 
the one to which he had belonged as Bishop of London. 
The people among whom he now found himself in 1570 
still observed the old Romish fasts and festivals ; still, under 
the influence of the old ideas of purgatory, brought 
offerings of money and eggs at the burial of the dead ; 
and still counted their beads as they went through their 
prayers. As archbishop he found it necessary to issue a 
commission to the four archdeacons of the diocese ' for the 
pulling down and demolishing those sustentacula, commonly 
called rood-lofts, placed at the door of the choir of every 
parish church, as footsteps and monuments of the old 
idolatry and superstition.' As his register shows,^ he also 
had to issue injunctions against crossing, breathing over 
the sacramental bread and wine, the elevation of the 
elements for adoration, and against the use of oil, or 
chrism, tapers, spittle, and other popish ceremonies at 
baptism. Hand-bells were still rung at burials to drive 
away evil spirits ; the people still observed ' months 
minds,' or monthly and yearly commemorations of the 
dead, when dirges were sung and prayers offered for the 
repose of their souls ; pedlars continued to set forth their 
wares in church-porch and church-yard on Sundays as well 
as holidays ; superstitious observances were still kept up 
in connection with the perambulation of the parish bounds 
^ Folio 155. Cited by Str>'pe, Life of Grindal, p. 167. 



28 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

in cross-week or gang-days ; lords of misrule or summer 
lords and ladies, minstrels and morris dancers came at 
Christmas and May-day, or at rush-bearings into church 
as well as church-yard, playing unseemly parts with 
wanton gesture and ribald scoff; while at the Feast of the 
Purification or Candlemas-day, as many as two hundred 
candles were lighted in the church in honour of the Virgin, 
in addition to from ten to twenty torches. 

The truth is that in many parishes there had been little, 
if any, religious teaching of Scriptural sort for generations. 
The President and Council of the North informed the 
Privy Council that in several of the churches there had 
literally never been a sermon for years ; that many of the 
ministers were utterly unable to teach, and that the back- 
wardness of the people in religion and their insurrection in 
the Northern Rising really rose rather from ignorance and 
lack of convenient instructing, than from stubbornness or 
wilful disobedience. To remedy this state of things, the 
preachers in the cathedral churches were ordered to divide 
themselves in the diocese where they dwelt, and travel 
from place to place preaching the Word of God to the 
people ; letters also were despatched to all justices of the 
peace requiring them to receive these preachers, assist 
them and accompany them to the places where they were 
to preach, remain at their sermons and procure sufficient 
and orderly audience to their encouragement.^ 

During the reign of Edward VI., several of the nobility 
had come into possession of monastic lands on the under- 
standing that they should continue the payment of life- 
pensions to the monks who were dispossessed. In order 
to rid themselves of this liability and get these men off 
their hands, they presented them to the livings they 
happened to have in their gift, and so men were thus 

^ State Papers, Domestic. Elizabeth. Vol. xiv., 32, November, 
1568. 



PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 29 

introduced to the sacred office who were ignorant and 
altogether unfit for the discharge of its duties. These 
monks thus suddenly called upon to fill positions to which 
they were not accustomed, did not preach simply because 
they could not. In this way it came about that in many 
parishes besides those in the northern province, there were 
churches where there had not been a sermon for years. It 
was a step in advance, therefore, when it was laid down by 
authority that a sermon must be preached once every 
quarter. To this some of the more godly in the nation 
replied with disappointment that four sermons in the year 
were as little likely to make perfect men in Christ Jesus, 
as four strokes of an axe were to fell a mighty oak, or as 
four showers an hour long were to moisten the hard dry 
earth and make it fruitful the whole year long.^ 

From a report of the diocese of Chichester made in 1569, 
it would appear that some parts even of the province of 
Canterbury were not much more enlightened than the 
province of York, as Grindal described it. From that 
report we find there were churches where there had not 
been a sermon once in seven years, or even once in twelve. 
Some churches had ' neither parson, vicar nor curate, but 
only a sory reder.' In the deanery of Midhurst there were 
beneficed men who preached in Queen Mary's days, but 
v/ho did not and would not preach now in Elizabeth's time, 
and yet had kept their livings all the ten years since Mary 
died. When the preacher in the town of Battle spoke 
against popery, the people, it is said, ' will not abide, but 
get out of the church.' In some other parishes when the 
rood was taken away the parishioners retaliated by 
drawing a figure of the cross with chalk in its place; and 
when that in return was painted over, crosses were drawn 
upon the church walls, within and without, and also upon 

^ The lamentable Complaint of the Commonaltie. Parte of a 
Register, p. 216. 



^ 



30 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

pulpit and communion-table ; in other churches where the 
rood-lofts were taken down by authority, they were 
defiantly set up again.^ 

It was in days like these, when the land had scarcely 
emerged from beneath the power and superstitions of 
Rome, that the early Congregationalists raised their 
testimony on behalf of what they held to be a more 
scriptural faith and polity than prevailed in the National 
Church. For our purpose they may be most conveniently 
described as falling into three groups, these groups being 
determined by the localities in which they carried on their 
operations. Thus we have those in Eastern England, 
those in London, and finally those in the churches at 
Scrooby and Gainsborough, from which the Pilgrim Fathers 
took their rise. 

The leader of the Congregationalists in East Anglia was 
obert Browne, a man of ability and force of character, 
and, so far as social position was concerned, of aristocratic 
connections. By a strange irony of fate, he is by one side 
persistently described as the founder of Congregationalism, 
and as persistently repudiated by the other. From 
having advocated Congregational principles at one part of 
his career, and withdrawn from them at another, he has 
received scant justice from both sides. Ardent and im- 
pulsive, but too unstable to stand the stress of the storm 
which gathered round him year after year — he was, he 
says, in the course of his life in no fewer than thirty 
prisons, in some of which he could not see his hand at 
mid-day — he scarcely seems to have deserved all the hard 
things that have been said of him. No doubt he had 
more capacity for expounding the principles of Congre- 
gationalism than for working them out in actual life, but 
no one can dispassionately read the five books he published 
between 1582 and 1584, without feeling that at that time 
^ State Papers, Domestic. Elizabeth. Vol. Ix., 71 : 1569. 



PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 31 

at least he was an earnest-minded man, of strong and clear 
convictions in favour of popular government in the Church. 
But, whatever may be his merits or demerits, he was 
certainly not the founder of Congregationalism in England. 
For, to say nothing of the community in Queen Mary's 
days, under the pastorate of John Rough, there is, as we 
have seen, indisputable evidence of the existence of a 
Congregational Church in London as early as 1571, which 
must have been in existence there for some years, for its 
pastor Richard Fitz had already died in prison, probably 
died there before Robert Browne had even entered 
Cambridge as an undergraduate, for he did not take his 
degree till 1572. There is strong probability indeed that 
it was from these very people that he first derived the 
principles of Congregationalism. For on leaving Cam- 
bridge he went to London, where he was engaged in 
teaching ' schollers for the space of three years,' as he tells 
us himself. It was during these same three years, he says, 
' he wholly bent himself to search and find out the matters 
of the Church, as to how it was to be guided and ordered, 
and what abuses there were in the ecclesiastical government 
then used.' ^ It was also during this time of mental 
conflict we find him speaking on Sundays to scattered 
companies of Christian people who were accustomed to 
gather in the fields and gravel pits about Islington. It 
was here that the Separatists had gathered and continued 
to gather. Here John Rough and Cuthbert Symson were 
arrested ; here on into Elizabeth's reign they continued 
to meet, and here in June 1592 fifty-six persons were 
arrested on Sunday, and sent to prison ' for hearing the 
Word of God truly taught, praying and praising God.' A 
petition presented to Parliament on their behalf says that 
'they were taken in the very same place where the 
persecuted Church and martyrs were enforced to use like 

^ Trice afid Short Dcclaralion. 



33 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

exercises in Queen Mary's days.' ^ Finding Robert 
Browne 'lecturing' to Sunday gatherings in the fields and 
gravel pits of Islington at a time when his mind was in a 
state of ferment on the subject of Church government, it is 
not difficult to see where and how he was first initiated into 
the principles of Congregationalism. 

The plague drove him from London, and we find him 
again in Cambridge, where he continued to preach till in- 
hibited by the bishop. Just then it came to his ears that 
some good people in Norfolk were ' verie forward ' in the 
matter of religion, and he ' thought it his duetie to take his 
voiage to them.' While he was so resolving there came up 
from Norfolk, Robert Harrison, an old Cambridge acquain- 
tance, who had been going through the same kind of mental 
conflict as Browne himself. After much intercourse and 
free talk on matters ecclesiastical they went to Norwich 
together, where they gathered a congregation of believers 
into church fellowship. They did not, however, confine 
their labours to Norwich, for in 1581 the bishop forwarded 
to Lord Burleigh articles of complaint against Browne, who 
was his kinsman, to the effect that he had been lately 
apprehended at Bury St. Edmunds on the charge of 
gathering people to hear him in private houses and 
conventicles to the number of a hundred at a time. It 
would appear that Harrison also was arrested at the same 
time as his friend, for he tells us in a Little Treatise, 
published by him in 1583, that he could have escaped in 
time, but that he did not think it lawful to withdraw into 
any other place for his own liberty's sake till he had borne 
open witness for the good cause. After their release they 
with their followers left England for Middelburg in 
Zealand, where they established a Congregational church, 
and from whence they sent over from time to time the 

' Petition reprinted in More Work for the Dean. Thomas Wall. 
1681. 



PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 33 

books they published, and against which a proclamation 
was issued in 1583. It is conjectured that Harrison died 
about 1585, and the following year Robert Browne returned 
to England, where he again joined the Episcopal Church, in 
the communion of which he remained till his death. 

In 1581, as we have seen, the Bishop of Norwich informed 
Lord Burleigh that Robert Browne had more than once 
taught 'strange and dangerous doctrine' at Bury St. 
Edmunds. He was not, however, the earliest exponent of 
Congregational principles in that ancient East Anglian 
town. For at the very time he was gathering people into 
conventicles there, John Copping was a prisoner in the old 
gaol in the market-place, where he had already lain for five 
years for his advocacy of these principles ; and two years 
later this man and his friend Elias Thacker were to die on 
the scaffold for their fidelity to them. It seemed fitting, 
perhaps, that here in the town where for generations the 
great Abbey of St. Edmunds had been the centre of all 
life and influence, where ecclesiastical authority had been 
supreme and paramount, that the first martyrs for Free 
Church principles should lay down their lives for their 
testimony. 

In the old time Bury was one of the most powerful 
strongholds of the ancient faith. The royal abbey was 
the burial-place and shrine of King Edmund ; its con- 
ventual bell was the largest in England, and its por- 
phyry altar had privilege of mass when all the rest of the 
kingdom was under interdict. Its abbot had liberty of 
coinage, sat among the peers in Parliament, and had great 
officers under him : prior, sub-prior, sacrist, and the like, 
besides eighty monks, fifteen chaplains and one hundred 
and eleven attendants within the walls of the monastery. 
The great west gate now remaining was only one of 
three with their high walls and towers, while within the 
precincts were the palace, the monastery, the chapter house, 

D 



34 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

a hundred feet long, and besides the abbey church three 
other churches, one of which, St. Margaret's, is said by 
Leland to be equal if not superior in length and stateliness 
to old St. Peter's at Rome. But if the townspeople knew 
something of the splendours of ecclesiasticism they knew 
something of its superstitions and something of its oppres- 
sions and tyrannies too. Pilgrims came from far and near 
to see wonder-working relics : drops of the blood of the 
martyr Stephen ; some of the coals on which St. Lawrence 
was broiled ; skulls of ancient saints and martyrs ; the 
boots of St. Thomas of Canterbury and the bones of 
St. Botolph, which, if carried in procession, would be sure 
to bring rain when rain was needed ; there were wax 
candles too, which, if carried round the cornfields in seed- 
time, would work in such wondrous way that neither 
darnel nor noisome weed of other sort would grow that 
year to the discomfort of faithful husbandmen. But if 
priestly candles did ever save the labour of the toiler in 
the fields, that labour was rigorously exacted in other 
ways about which there could be no manner of doubt. 
Every serf within the jurisdiction was bound to plough a 
rood of the abbot's land, to reap his harvest field, to fold 
his sheep, and to help to bring the annual catch of eels to 
his table. Within the abbot's wide domain the land and 
water were his ; the townspeople had to pay him for the 
pasture of their cattle on their own common ; and if the 
fullers refused him the loan of their cloth, the use of the 
stream was refused and their looms were seized. So it 
came to pass that in the very town where the first 
Congregationalists were brought as martyrs to the scaffold, 
plain burgesses, centuries before, rose up and won in detail 
the liberties of Englishmen, even before the Great Charter 
claimed them for the realm at large. When the exactions 
of the abbot grew to be more than English folk could bear 
the very women turned out, distaff in hand, and put his 



PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FATHERS. 35 

officers to flight ; and in later times surging masses of 
angry men, women and children poured in from all the 
villages round to wreck the abbey in their wrath, and break 
the yoke of the tyranny under which they had groaned 
too long. 

The men of Bury in the sixteenth century were no more 

I willing to submit to ecclesiastical domination than their 

I ancestors in the centuries before. In 1581 an Act was 
passed inflicting a fine of twenty pounds a month upon 
those who refused to come to church ; but when the 
commissary of the archdeacon proceeded to enforce the 
Act he was seriously molested. He complained that when 

I he swore in six questmen to bring presentments against 
such as came not to church ever, some of the justices sent 

I for him, 'called him Jack and Knave he knew not how 
often,' and threatened to send him to gaol. The bishop 

j drew up twelve articles against the justices, which he laid 
before Lord Burleigh, charging them with favouring John 
Copping and one Tyler, who were in prison for spreading 
Robert Browne's books, and trying to get them liberated. 

I He further complained that these justices were for nothing 
but Geneva psalms and sermons, in reply to which they 
said they could not but marvel at the bishop speaking 
thus, for the psalms were David's, and as for the sermons, 
his lordship knew the necessity there was for them. 
Eventually the bishop and other members of the Ecclesi- 
astical Commission visited the town in person, and 
described the two Puritan ministers, Mr. Handscomb and 
Mr. Gay ton, as ' the men that blew the coals whereof this 
fire was kindled.' Further, at the Assizes held June 1583, 
before the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Christopher Wray, 
Elias Thacker and John Copping were put upon their 
trial for dispersing the books written by Robert Browne 

l^ and Robert Harrison, and being convicted were sentenced 
to death. That there might be no time for appeal, tiiey 

D 2 



36 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

were hanged at once, while the Assizes were still being 
held, Thacker one day, and Copping the next. They were 
both willing to acknowledge the civil authority of Her 
Majesty, but no further ; and though Dr. Still, the chaplain, 
tried to convince them that the Queen was head of the 
Church as well as of the State, ' yet they were at that 
very time of their death immovably of the same mind.' 
Before their execution ' their books, as many of them as 
could be found, were burnt before them.' It is easier, 
however, to stretch men by the neck and burn their books 
than to suppress their opinions. In his official report the 
Lord Chief Justice had to tell the Lord Treasurer that 
there were still many remaining of Copping and Thacker's 
way of thinking, that, indeed, he had had to send one 
minister to prison for saying that if it had been known 
when Elias Thacker was to have suffered, there would have 
been five hundred good fellows more than there were at 
his execution.^ 

While Robert Browne's books were coming over from 
Middelburg by stealth, and men were being hanged for 
spreading them, there were great searchings of heart going 
on in a certain east country parsonage in the county of 
Norfolk. John Greenwood, on leaving Cambridge, where 
he had graduated in 1581, had been ordained by the bishop. 
He had been greatly influenced, however, by opinions of 
freer sort, which were ripe at the university in that seething 
time ; he had also met with Robert Browne's Treatise of 
Reformation xvithotct Tarrying for anie, which came over 
the year after he had entered upon his living, and the more 
he thought upon these questions the less satisfied he 
became, and at length in 1585 he was deprived of his 
benefice by the bishop ' for the disliking he had to the 
Order of the Book of Common Prayer.' We next find him 
acting as chaplain to a Puritan nobleman, Lord Rich, at 

^ Lansdowne MSS., xxxviii., 64. 



PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FA THERS. 37 

Rochford Hall, in the county of Essex. The services he 
and Robert Wright carried on jointly in the great chamber 
of the hall proved so attractive that the people of the 
neighbourhood forsook those at the parish church to 
attend them. This brought down the displeasure of the 
bishop, and Greenwood had to flee, seeking refuge in what 
was even then the great wilderness of London life. Here he 
found companionship with those who composed the secret 
church in London, the successors of those who ever since 
the Reformation had striven for a simpler worship and 
a more scriptural faith. He joined their gatherings, 
until in the month of October 1587 he was arrested along 
with twenty others ' for being at private conventicles in 
Henry Martin's house in St. Andrew's, in Wardropp.'^ 
After examination before the Bishop of London he was 
sent to the Clink prison, there to abide till further order 
was taken. 

While John Greenwood lay in the Clink he received a 
visit from one whose name was to become memorable in 
Free Church history. This was Henry Barrowe, the son 
of a country squire at Shipdam., in Norfolk. He had been 
trained for the law, and during the years of his London 
life had lived in wild and wanton way, but passing a 
London church and hearing the preacher's voice, he turned 
in in freakish fashion and heard that which changed every- 
thing for him. Lord Bacon, who knew him, says that 'he 
made a leap from a vain and libertine youth ' to a life of 
earnest purpose, * the strangeness and suddenness of which 
alteration made him very much spoken of.' The change 
was as permanent as it was sudden, and introduced him to 
new companionships of godly sort. In this way he came 
to be associated with John Greenwood, and hearing of his 
friend's arrest he went down to the prison one Sunday 

^ State Papers, Domestic. Elizabeth. Vol. cciv., 10, 1587. 
Particulars of several Brownists . 



38 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

morning to visit him. No sooner was he within the walls 
of the Clink than he himself was arrested by the gaoler 
and sent up the river the same afternoon to Lambeth 
Palace, where he was examined before the archbishop and 
other officials. Examined again and again from time to 
time, he was at length consigned to the Fleet prison, where 
he and his friend Greenwood shared the same chamber. 
Here the years passed slowly away, the two prisoners en- 
gaged in writing books for the assertion and vindication of 
their principles. In 1592 there was some relaxation after 
five years' imprisonment. Greenwood was released, but not 
for long. On December 5 that same year, he along with 
Francis Johnson was arrested while worshipping at the 
house of Edward Boyes on Ludgate Hill, and between one 
and two o'clock in the morning conveyed with bills and 
staves to prison once more. 

The end was now not far off. On March 23, 1 593, Barrowe 
and Greenwood were put upon their trial at the Old Bailey, 
and that night the Attorney-General reported to the Lord 
Keeper of the Great Seal, that the Court had proceeded 
against these men for devising seditious books, that they 
were attainted by verdict of judgment, and direction given 
for execution to-morrow, as in cases of like quality.^ Next 
morning they were brought out of their dungeon, their 
irons struck off, and they bound to the cart, at which moment 
a reprieve arrived. Again, a week later, as Barrowe says, 
' my brother Greenwood and I were very early and 
secretly conveyed to the place of execution,' that is, to 
Tyburn, 'where being tied by the necks to the tree, we 
were permitted to speak a few words.' These few words 
ended, they then joined in prayer for the Queen, the 
magistrates, and the people, and like their Master before 
them, for their enemies also. Their last words, as they 
supposed, were almost reached, when at the fateful moment 
^ Harleian AISS. 6848 ; 7, 9, 11, 14, 191. 



PRECURSORS OF THE PILGRIM FA THERS. 39 

a messenger with a reprieve from her majesty made his 
way through the crowd to the scaffold, and again their 
lives were spared. Cheers and rejoicing rose from the 
multitude, both all round the place of execution and all 
the way back, from ways, streets, and houses, as they 
returned to their prison chamber. The reprieve, however, 
was not for long. They had had ' two near and miraculous 
escapes ' ; twice had they gone through the bitterness of 
death, and twice been sent back to the hopes of life. But 
the end came at last. On April 6, 1593, stripped of their 
irons and bound to the cart once more, they went forth to 
Tyburn again, two aged widows with them bearing their 
winding sheets. This time there came no reprieve ; from 
this journey there was no return. The conflict ended, as 
it has often ended, before and since : 

Truth for ever on the scaffold, Wrong for ever on the throne, 
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown 
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own. 



40 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



II. 

SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 

Having briefly traced the course of the struggle for 
spiritual freedom on English soil to the end of the six- 
teenth century, we now turn to the church in the north 
Midland shire from which the Pilgrim Fathers sprang. We 
make our way therefore to the village of Scrooby, nestling 
amid quiet meadows and by the side of tranquil streams, 
where the three counties of Nottingham, York and Lincoln 
meet. After two centuries of oblivion this village sprang 
to fame as the birthplace of the Pilgrim Church. Half 
a century ago all that was known of the local beginnings 
of that church was gathered from some brief sentences of 
Governor Bradford, to the effect that those who formed 
this historic community ' were of several towns and 
villages, some in Nottinghamshire, some in Lincolnshire, 
and some in Yorkshire, where they bordered nearest to- 
gether ' ; and next, that ' they ordinarily met at William 
Brewster's house on the Lord's day, which was a manor of 
the bishop's.' To find out where these conditions applied 
was an inviting problem to solve, and in 1842, during a 
visit to England, the Hon. James Savage submitted that 
problem for solution to the Rev. Joseph Hunter, the author 
of a history of South Yorkshire, of which district he was a 
native. Mr. Hunter was at that time Assistant Keeper of 
Her Majesty's Records, and therefore it was with special 
training and with special advantages that he addressed 




GOVERNOR Bradford's cottage at austerfield. 

I. Cottage. 2. Steps to cellar. 3. Cellar. 

[From sketches bij ChaklesiWhymper.) 



SCROOBY AND AUS TER FIELD. 43 

himself to the consideration of the question. After careful 
investigation he pointed out that the required conditions as 
to locality were met in the village of Scrooby, in the 
hundred of Basset-Lawe, in the county of Nottingham, that 
being the only place comprising an episcopal manor which 
was near the three counties mentioned by Bradford. Since 
the publication of his Collections Concerning the Early 
Histoty of the Founders of New Plymouth, in 1849, the 
question as to locality may be considered as finally 
settled. 

Scrooby, one of those places of far less importance now 
in railway times than in the old coaching days, is situated 
in Nottinghamshire, about a mile and a half south of 
Bawtry, a market-town within the Yorkshire border on the 
great north road from London to Berwick. The village 
has a railway station of its own, but the traveller from the 
south who would approach Scrooby aright should go on to 
Bawtry, and return by the high road lined with elm-trees, 
leading from Bawtry Hall to Scrooby Mill. This is both 
more picturesque and is the road along which William 
Bradford came from Austerfield to the gatherings of the 
brethren in William Brewster's house. Bawtry itself also 
has its memories of those olden times as well as Scrooby, 
on which it may be pleasant to linger as we saunter 
through. The same John de Builli who in the reign of 
Henry H. gave to the neighbouring convent of Blyth the 
chapel of Austerfield, in which William Bradford was 
baptised, gave to that convent the chapel of Bawtry too. 
At the southern extremity of the town also is the hospital 
of St. Mary Magdalen, founded in 1390 by Robert Morton 
of Bawtry, and endowed for a priest there to have residence, 
' to keep hospitalitie for poore people, and to pray for the 
Founder's Soule and all Christian Soules.' By way of 
further acknowledgment ' a free rente of a pound of peper ' 
was to be paid out of the hospital yearly to the Mortons, as 



44 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

descendants of the founder.^ These Mortons continued 
long after the Reformation to be strenuous supporters of 
the ancient faith. In the days of William Brewster's boy- 
hood he may have more than once seen along the road the 
hasty movements of the disguised priest, Nicholas Morton, 
as from time to time he passed between Rome and Bawtry, 
*a notable busy factor for the Pope in England.' Strype 
tells us that ' his resort was to Bautrie, where he lived 
obscurely at that town of danger, half a mile from the 
highway and open along the north road to all parts of 
England and Scotland.^ Soon after Elizabeth's coronation 
this man fled to Rome, but during the next thirty years he 
was often to and fro on secret errands, coming sometimes 
by way of Boston and sometimes by Grimsby, and remain- 
ing months at a time for purposes of intrigue. He was 
involved in that Catholic rising when, on November 14, 
1569, the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland 
entered Durham in arms, passed into the cathedral, tore 
the Bible and Prayer-book to pieces, set up the old altar, 
and had the mass said once more at the altar of St. Cuth- 
bert, after which they pushed on to Doncaster with an 
army which soon swelled to thousands of men. This same 
Nicholas Morton was also the man who, at the peril of his 
life, brought over in 1570 the papal bull by which Pius V. 
declared Queen Elizabeth a heretic, and as such cut off 
from the communion of the faithful, and her crown and 
kingdom forfeited ; and as he and his nephew Robert 
Morton at Bawtry were only some fifteen or sixteen miles 
from Fotheringay Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was 
prisoner, there they were often the medium of communica- 
tion between her and her Catholic friends across the sea. 

^ An Account of the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalen, near Scrooby. 
MS. in the possession of Thomas Frewer, Esq. Hearne's Works. 
Vol. iv., 1 810. 

- Annals, 1575. Vol. II., pp. i., 577-579- 



SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 45 

With these sixteenth-century memories in our minds we 
pass the ehn-trees round Bavvtry Hall, with their lively 
colony of rooks, and half a mile farther on we come to 
Gibbet Hill, with its gruesome associations of a dark and 
evil deed wrought at the old toll-gate more than a century 
ago. At this point we are in sight of Scrooby spire, and 
before crossing the bridge we had better leave the present 
high road, which is of modern date, and keep to the pic- 
turesque old road to the left, which goes past the clump 
of fir-trees and the slopes of red sandstone bright with 
golden furze, and so by the banks of Ryton stream as it 
goes its quiet way to the Idle and on to the Trent at Idle 
Stop. The old road comes out more and more distinctly 
as we go till it reaches the ford below the water-mill, and 
across this we pass into the centre of the village, as kings 
and nobles and long lines of meaner folk have passed 
before us, sometimes with the waters of the ford high up 
the wheels of the lumbering coach. 

The village of Scrooby, situated 146 miles north ot 
London, in the Bassetlawe division of Nottinghamshire, 
with its population of some two hundred souls, though 
small in extent, is of ancient fame. As far back as 
Domesday Book the manor belonged to the Archbishops 
of York, who had a palace here as well as at York, 
Bishopthorpe, Cawood, Southwell, Beverley, and elsewhere. 
It is not known when they first came here, but as early as 
1 178 John the Constable of Chester granted the town of 
Plumtree to Roger, Archbishop of York, and his successors 
for ever; and in 1537 Edward, a successor in the arch- 
bishopric, 'demised to Geoffrey Lee, Esquire, his brother, 
all that his great close, paled about, called Plumtree field, 
besides Scrooby Park with the lodge upon the same, 
together with all his warren and game of conies in the 
parishes of Scrooby and Harworth for forty-one years.' ^ 
' Raine's History and Antiquities of t lie Paris/i of BlytJi. 1S60. 



46 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

The parish church, which Leland described more than three 
centuries ago as * not big but Avell builded,' is dedicated to 
St. Wilfrid, and is an embattled building in the Early 
English and Decorated styles, having a tower surmounted 
by four pinnacles and a lofty octagonal spire. It is 
somewhat one-sided in appearance, having an aisle on the 
south side, but none corresponding to it on the north. 
Two of the three bells in the tower go back farther than 
William Brewster's time, bearing date upon them 141 1 
and 151 1 ; the third was not placed till 1647. The spire 
has been twice struck by lightning, once in 18 17 and 
again in 183 1 ; and the interior of the church was restored 
in 1862, about which time the old font disappeared, having 
found its way, it is said, to the American side of the 
Atlantic. Two massive benches, one on each side of the 
chancel, and having the backs and ends covered with 
carvings of the ancient Christian symbol, the grape vine, 
are remnants of the former majesty of the manor pew. 
The parish register, unfortunately, does not go back to the 
days of the Pilgrim Fathers ; the oldest tombstone that is 
decipherable is that of Theophilus Torre, who died in 1620, 
and there is a monument to the memory of the daughter 
of Archbishop Sandys ; but for the rest, when the church- 
yard was restored in recent years the gravestones were 
grouped together without respect to the bodies which lay 
beneath. Near the north-eastern gate are the old vicarage, 
the parish pound, and all that remains of the parish stocks. 
The quaint cottage known as the vicarage, built of small 
bricks, without a staircase except that furnished by an up- 
lifted ladder, has for generations been the abode of the parish 
clerks, the vicar, having charge of three churches, residing 
in the neighbouring parish of Sutton-cum-Lound. 

The primary interest, however, which now draws pilgrims 
to Scrooby, is neither the village nor the village church, so 
much as what remains of the old manor house and the 




ANCIENT PEWS IN SCROOPY CHURCH. 



SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 



49 



field where still lie buried the foundations of the ancient 
palace. The latter building probably began to fall into 
decay about the time the little community of Christian 
men came to worship at William Brewster's house. 
Thoroton, writing of Scrooby in 1677, says : — ' Here 
xvithin meinory stood a very fair palace, a far greater house 
of receit and a better seat for provision than Southwell, 
and had attending to it the North Soke, consisting of very 
many towns thereabouts ; it hath a fair park belonging to 




SITE OF THE OLD STOCKS, SCROOBY CHURCHYARD. 
{From a sketch by Charles Whvmper.) 

it. Archbishop Sandes caused it to be demised to his son 
Sir Samuel Sandes, since which the house hath been 
demolished almost to the ground.' The building whose 
decay and downfall were thus chronicled by the Notting- 
hamshire historian was one of the palaces held by the 
Archbishops of York in the days when they moved from 
one part of their diocese to another, administering various 
civil as well as ecclesiastical functions, dispensing hospitality 
and taking with them a numerous and splendid retinue. 



50 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

It was of great antiquity. The letter by which Archbishop 
Gray granted to the brethren of the Hospital of St. John, 
Nottingham, the power to elect their own warders, was 
thus endorsed : ' Given at Scrooby by the hands of 
Master Simon of Evesham, the fourth of December, in 
the seventeenth year [of our pontificate.' December ii, 
1232.]^ Being also near to one of the post stations on the 
great north road, it was not infrequently a hospice for 
distinguished travellers on their way south or north. It is 
recorded that Margaret, Queen of Scotland, daughter of 
King Henry VII., slept here on the 12th of June, 1603, on 
her way to Scotland. 

For the space of several weeks also, towards the 
close of his strangely chequered career. Cardinal Wolsey 
made the old manor house his abiding-place, planting the 
mulberry-tree in the garden which till recent days was 
associated with his name. More a statesman than an 
ecclesiastic, he has been described as * probably the greatest 
political genius whom England has ever produced ; for at 
a great crisis of European history he impressed England 
with a sense of her own importance, and secured for her a 
leading position in European affairs,'^ Though raised to 
the Archbishopric of York in 15 14, it was not till 1530 
that Wolsey visited the province over which he had been 
placed. When the royal favour was gone and his fortunes 
were broken, with a desolate heart, at the beginning of 
Passion week, he set out on his journey to York. After 
spending some time at his other manor house at Southwell, 
towards the end of the summer he removed from Southwell 
to Scrooby, where ' he continued until after Michaelmas, 
ministering many good deeds of charity.' In his retinue 
at this very time was an ecclesiastic who was to gain a 
notoriety of his own in later days. Bonner, afterwards 

^ Archbishop Gray's Register. Ed. Raines, p. 35. 
Twelve Etiglish Statesmen: Cardinal Wolsey, p. 2. 



SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 51 

Bishop of London in Mary's reign, dates a letter to 
Thomas Cromwell ' at Scrooby with my Lord's grace,' 
in 1530.^ 

In this quiet interval at Scrooby, before the end 
came, Wolsey seems to have turned to simpler and more 
guileless pursuits than those so long congenial to him, of 
baffling kings and statesmen in the political game. One 
writing in 1536, says of him: 'Who was less beloved in 
the north than my lord cardinal before he was amongst 
them ? Who better beloved after he had been there 
a while? He gave bishops a right good example how 
they might win men's hearts. There were few holy days 
but he would ride five or six miles from his house, now to 
this parish church, now to that, and there cause one or 
other of his doctors to make a sermon unto the people. 
He sat among them, and said mass before all the parish ; 
he saw why churches were made, and began to restore 
them to their right and proper use. He brought his 
dinner with him, and bade divers of the parish to it, when 
he enquired whether there were any debate or grudge 
between any of them, and if there were he would, after 
dinner, send for the parties to the church and make them 
all one.' All this would be pleasant to read, v/ere it not 
for the fact that behind all these pastoral simplicities there 
was a weary aching heart. For it was during these same 
Scrooby days Wolsey learnt that all his most cherished 
plans had come to nothing ; that the king had dissolved 
his college at Ipswich, seizing all its lands and possessions ; 
and that at Oxford the name of Christ Church had obliter- 
ated that of Cardinal College. ' I am put away from my 
sleep and meat,' he wrote, 'for such advertisements as I 
have had of the dissolution of my colleges.' 

After three months spent at Scrooby, towards the end of 
September, the fallen minister set out for York, and two 

' Ellis's Original Letters, III., vol. ii., p. 178. 

E 2 



5 2 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGL A ND. 

months later he had taken that longer journey from which 
there is no return. As the end drew near he sent a 
message to the king, requesting ' His grace in God's name 
that he have a vigilant eye to depress this new pernicious 
sect of Lutherans, that it do not increase within his 
dominions through his negligence.' As if either king or 
cardinal could keep back the oncoming tide ! Little did 
Wolsey dream that from that same manor house at 
Scrooby he had so lately left there would, in process of 
time, go forth a little band of earnest men who would carry 
across to the new world beyond the Atlantic the principles 
of freedom and self-government born of that very Re- 
formation he was trying to crush with his dying hand. He 
could not foresee this, nor could he anticipate that even 
when, eleven years later — in 1541 — the king himself slept a 
night at Scrooby on his way to the north the mighty 
change would have come, and that 'this new pernicious 
sect of the Lutherans ' would be supreme in the State. Yet 
so it was. Li that brief space the king had become a 
Lutheran himself, the Act of Supremacy had become law 
the monasteries were dissolved, the nation had passed over 
to the Protestant faith, and England was severed from 
the See of Rome. 

We happen to be able to reproduce to our own mind's 
eye the palace, its appearance and equipment, as it was 
seen at the time. Leland, the antiquary, was there the 
same year as the king. Speaking of the year 1541, he 
says : — ' In the meane townlet of Scrooby I marked two 
things — the parish church, not big but very well builded ; 
the second was a great manor place, standing within 
a moat, and longing to the Archbishop of York ; builded 
in two courts, whereof the first is very ample and all 
builded of timber, saving the front of the house that is 
of brick, to "the which ascenditur per gracilis lapideos. 
The inner court building, as far as I marked, was of 



SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 53 

timber building, and was not in compass past the fourth 
part of the outer court.' ^ So much for the exterior. 
The interior arrangement and equipment we gather from 
an official source. After their visitation of the province 
of York, Doctors Richard Lay ton and Thomas Legh 
presented their report to Cromwell. Describing the 
* implements remayning at Scrooby,' they state that in the 
Hall there were three screens, six tables, nine forms, one 
cupboard, etc. ; ' in the Chapell oone alter Tymber, oone 
lectionary and superalles, a payer of Organes, a Clock 
without plometts and ropes.' They tell us also what was 
in the 'dynyng chambre,' which was 'ceiled and dressed 
with waynscot,' what was in the ' winpholler's chambre and 
the four oodre chambres above and beneath,' and so on 
through all the thirty-nine chambers and apartments, even 
to 'the court between the galerie and the kitchen,' and 
including all the furniture, even to ' the olde tymbre of a 
shed over the well' William Warener, the receiver, valued 
the rents of the archbishop's lordship of Scrooby at 
£16^ lis. 4^d., in purchasing value a far greater sum, of 
course, in those days than in these.^ 

After the Reformation and the visitation of the religious 
houses consequent thereon, the place seems to have lost 
something of its ancient stateliness, and to have entered 
upon its period of decline. In 1557 Archbishop Heath 
granted a lease of 'all his manor house or chief manor 
place of Scrooby with the park and lands ' for twenty-one 
years at about ;^2i per annum, to James Bryne, the steward 
of his household. In 1575 Archbishop Grindal again 
leased the said manor for the same length of time and at 
the same rent to William Marshall of Much Hadham, 
CO. Hertford, an arrangement which, however, seems to 

^ Itinerary, I. 36. 

^ Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII. : 27 Henry 
VIII., January 12, I53f. 



5+ PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

have fallen through ; for the following year, Archbishop 
Sandys, then recently elevated to the see of York, leased 
the same manor to his son, Sir Samuel Sandys, of the 
Middle Temple, at a yearly rent of £6t^ 6s. 8d. By this 
time the Brewsters, with whom this narrative will be 
intimately concerned, appeared upon the scene ; for in the 
month of January, 1575-6, Archbishop Sandys appointed 
William Brewster — the father of the Elder Brewster of 
later days — his receiver of Scrooby and all its liberties in 
Nottinghamshire, and also bailiff of the manor house, to 
hold both offices for life. The family were there even 
earlier still, for on the 'administration of the estate of 
William Brewster of Scrooby' being granted to William 
Brewster his son, in 1590, it is noted that the widow 
Prudence held the office of Post when he died, and that the 
father of the deceased man had held it before him. The 
connexion of the family with the office was therefore of long 
standing. In 1545, on the death of Sir Brian Tuke, who 
had been Master of the Postes, a letter was sent from the 
Privy Council to Mr. Mason, his successor, 'for the con- 
tynuance of Adam Gascoyne in the office of the Postship of 
Scrobye,' and a warrant to him the following year, ' that he 
shuld paye to Adam Gascoynes his dailye wages of iiijj. 
from the last of his payes.' ^ 

As William Brewster's grandfather had probably suc- 
ceeded Gascoyne, and been in turn succeeded by his own 
son, we may take it for granted that the future leader of 
the Pilgrim Fathers first saw the light in the old manor 
house which was the residence of the ' Post ' for the time 
being. As he deposed at Leyden, June 25, 1609, that 
he was then forty-two years of age, he was born somewhere 
in 1566-7. After spending his early life at Scrooby and 
receiving education at some neighbouring school, William 
Brewster, as Bradford tells us, ' spent some small time 

^ Privy Council Register, 1545, p. 267 ; 1546, p. 363. 



SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 55 

at Cambridge,' where he matriculated at Peterhouse, 
the oldest of the college foundations, December 3, 1580.^ 
As he was at this date only about fourteen years of age, 
college could have been little more than a grammar school, 
and he appears not to have remained there long enough to 
take his degree. The next point in his history of which 
we have definite knowledge is that he was in the service 
of William Davison, Her Majesty's representative in the 
Netherlands when the cautionary towns of Brill and 
Flushing were delivered up to England in 1585. According 
to Bradford's narrative : ' After being first seasoned with 
the seeds of grace and virtue he went to the court, and 
served that religious and godly gentleman, William 
Davison, divers years when he was Secretary of State.' 

The connexion between these two men thus referred to 
is interesting, as being one of the master facts of Brewster's 
life. The acquaintance probably first sprang up as Davison 
passed through Scrooby on his way to and from Scotland 
on business of State, We know that he was along the 
great North Road at the beginning of 1583 on a diplomatic 
mission to Scotland, together with Robert Bowes, for there 
is a letter of his to Lord Burghley, dated January 3, 1582-3, 
in which he describes how he met M. de la Mothe Fenelon, 
the French envoy, on the road, and discussed Catholicism 
with him. The object of the envoy was to arrange with 
James VI. an alliance with France, while Davison's object 
was to checkmate him. At that very time William 
Brewster would be at home from Cambridge, and as 
Davison would certainly have to change horses at the 
manor house at Scrooby — may possibly have had to stay 
the night there — it is probable the acquaintance then 
sprang up between them which led to Brewster entering 

^ Mr. Franklin B. Dexter, of Yale University, found the record of 
this fact in the general Matriculation lists preserved in the Registry 
at the Pitt Press. 



56 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Davison's service. This was an important step in the 
young man's life, bringing him into contact with some of 
the leading men of the time. In August 1585 he accom- 
panied Davison to the Netherlands, where he went to 
negotiate an alliance with the States-General, and when 
on their return Davison became assistant to Walsingham, 
the Queen's Secretary of State, from the autumn of 1586 
till the following February, Brewster was with him in 
the court at Richmond, where, as his correspondence 
shows, Davison was in daily attendance upon the queen. 

As an official of the State, Davison was greatly esteemed 
and trusted, doing his work veraciously and resolutely. It 
was seldom that his advice to his own country on matters 
pertaining to the Netherlands did not prove to be the wisest 
that could be offered ; and, on the other hand. Prince 
Maurice said of him that he was one of the best and most 
certain friends that the House of Nassau possessed in 
England. He was not only a capable and honest states- 
man, he was also a godly man, the esteemed elder of a 
Puritan church. In days when the bishops were pressing 
the Puritans with increased severity, many of them fled to 
Antwerp, which has been described as at that time the 
Pella of the Puritan refugees ; and a church was formed in 
that city by the English and Scottish Merchant Ad- 
venturers. The church records of this community are 
still in existence, and it is from these we learn that 
Davison sustained an official relation to the church. 
Under date May 21, 1579, there is an entry to the effect 
' that upon Mr. Davison's occasion to depart for England ' 
it became necessary for the church to choose some 
additional elders. The records also mention that ' divers 
children borne to Mr. William Davison, Ambassador of 
Queen Elizabeth in Antwerp, and christened in the English 
church there, were afterwards naturalised in England.'^ 
^ Additional MSS., 6394, pp. 113, 142. 



SCROOB Y AND A US TER FIELD. 57 

On the 2 1st of the following January the grant was made 
to him of the office of the Clerk of the King's Bench and 
Keeper of the Records in the Treasury House at West- 
minster.^ Davison's connexion with the Christian men 
who had gone to the Low Countries, partly for purpose of 
commerce and partly also for larger range of religious 
freedom, while it throws light on his character, throws 
light also indirectly on that of William Brewster in these 
early years. For their personal relations seem to have 
been not merely intimate, but even affectionate. Bradford 
tells us that the elder man found the younger ' so discreet 
and faithful as he trusted him above all that were about 
him, and only employed him in all matters of greatest 
trust and secrecy. He esteemed him rather as a son than 
a servant, and for his wisdom and godliness (in private) he 
would converse with him more like a friend and familiar 
than a master. He attended his master when he was sent 
in ambassage by the queen into the Low Countries (1585) 
in the Earl of Leicester's time, as for other weighty affairs 
of State, so to receive possession of the cautionary towns ; 
and in token and sign thereof the keys of Flushing 
being delivered to him in Her Majesty's name, he kept 
them some time, and committed them to this his servant, 
who kept them under his pillow on which he slept the first 
night. And at his return the States honoured him with a 
gold chain, and his master committed it to him, and com- 
manded him to wear it when they arrived in England, as 
they rode through the country till they came to the 
court' ^ 

Distinction so flattering coming thus early seemed 
to have in it the promise of a brilliant political future. 
Certainly it then seemed far from probable that the 
young man thus basking in the world's sunshine would 

^ State Papers, Domesiic. Elizabeth. Addenda, 1 566-1 579. 
^ History of Ply mouth Plantation, pp. 409, 410. Boston- 1856. 



S8 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

yet choose and that for a long lifetime ' to suffer affliction 
with the people of God.' Yet so it was. He who shapes 
our lives for us had other thoughts for William Brewster 
than that he should spend his days in royal courts, where, 
as Sir Walter Raleigh, one of his contemporaries, says : 
* Strain'd sardonic smiles are glosing still ; where mirth's 
but mummery, and sorrows only real be.' The change in 
his career came in manner most unexpected. Within two 
years of that triumphal return from the Netherlands 
Secretary Davison's fortunes came down with a crash, 
bringing with them the brilliant prospects of his younger 
friend. It seems strange to connect events apparently so 
wide apart, yet it is almost certain that but for the execu- 
tion of Mary, Queen of Scots, there would have been no 
Pilgrim Church at Scrooby or at Leyden, no voyage of the 
Mayflower, and no Elder Brewster in Plymouth Church, 
with all his far-reaching influence in American life. The 
way the death of the Scottish queen came to afiect the 
whole course of Puritan history may be briefly explained. 
Elizabeth had resolved upon the death of Mary, but 
hesitated long before taking the final step. For months a 
warrant for the execution had been drawn up, waiting for 
that signature which the queen's ministers urged her again 
and again to give. At length, when the Scotch and French 
ambassadors were gone, and with them the last excuse for 
delay, she did sign it in the presence of Davison, who had 
lately become co-secretary with Walsingham, and having 
signed it directed him to have it sealed. It is clear 
now that she meant the execution to take place, but meant 
at the same time to throw the responsibility on someone 
else. Davison says that she ' forbade him to trouble her 
any further, or let her hear any more thereof till it was 
done, seeing that for her part she had now performed all 
that either in law or reason could be required of her.' 
But signing the death warrant, as both of them knew, was 



SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 59 

not enough ; there must also be formal delivery of it to 
some person, with direction to carry it out. This the queen 
contrived to evade, and when, on February 9, 1 587, news of 
the execution arrived, and she found it convenient to throw 
the responsibility of the deed upon her subordinates, she 
stormed at Davison for exceeding her instructions, and 
made him the scapegoat of the transaction. Tried before 
a special commission on the charge of divulging State 
secrets, he was fined ten thousand marks, deprived of his 
secretaryship, and sent as prisoner to the Tower. 

With this fall of Davison came, as we have said, the fall 
of his friend and favourite, William Brewster, so far at least 
as his position at court was concerned. Bradford tells us 
that ' afterwards he went and lived in the country, in good 
esteem amongst his friends and the gentlemen of those 
parts, especially the godly and religious.' In other words, 
he went back to Scrooby, towards the end of I587> at a 
time when, as it turned out, his services began to be greatly 
needed at home. His father had for several years held the 
responsible position of * Post ' on the great North Road at 
Scrooby, but now his health was failing, and he was 
unequal to the discharge of its duties, indeed, within a 
year and a half, in the summer of 1590, he was taken 
away by death. During these later months, the younger 
Brewster came back opportunely to fill his father's place. 
So completely did he do this, that his name appears to 
have been enrolled on the official list of Posts, and for a 
year and a half he received the emoluments. Nothing 
seemed more natural, therefore, than that he should receive 
the appointment when the position became formally vacant 
by the death of his father. In this, at first, he was disap- 
pointed. That same summer, in the month of June, Sir 
John Stanhope was made Postmaster-General, and he 
appointed one Samuel Bevercotes, a lawyer of Gray's Inn, 
to the vacant position. He had two reasons for preferring 



6o PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

this man to William Brewster ; first, he was his kinsman, 
and next, Brewster had not shown him that deference he 
expected — ' All this while, and to this hour,' says he, ' I 
never heard one word from young Brewster, he neither 
came to me. being in town, nor sent to me being absent, 
but as though I were to be overruled by others made his 
way according to his liking. I know my interest such as 
whether he had the place or no I can displace him, and 
thynk him worthily displaced for his contempt of me 
in not sekyng me at all.' This was in answer to an earnest 
letter from ex-secretary Davison, strongly urging the prior 
claim of his friend William Brewster. Sir John Stanhope's 
letter is among the State Papers. It is dated Oatlands, 
August 22 [1590], and on the back are notes in William 
Davison's handwriting, showing ' Why young Brewster 
ought to bee appointed.' He says that he 'was possessed 
of the place longe before his father's death, as may appeare 
by the enrolment of his name on the rolls among the other 
Postes ; by receipt of the fee for a year and a half ; by the 
testimony of Mr. Mills, who was privie to the grant, 
and did both register his name and pay him the wages ; 
and his exercise of the place for above a year and a halfe, 
which may be testified by the Postes his next neighbours. 
Neither is there any just cause to except against him, 
either in respect of his honestie, sufficiency for the service, 
discharge thereof hitherto, or other wayes v/hatever.' 

Other reasons also are noted at the back of this letter 
why Brewster should not be displaced, such as : ' the charge 
he hath been at provision this hard year for the service ; the 
loss he would sustain, or rather, utter undoing by being 
suddenly dispossessed, and the harmes of the example ' to 
Her Majesty's Service,^ It may be safely assumed that 
these strong reasons written by Davison at the back of 

^ State Papers, Domestic. Elizabeth. Vol. ccxxxiii., 48. 22 August 
[1590]. Sir John Stanhope to Sec. Davison. 



SCJiO OB V AND A USTERFIELD. 6 1 

Sir John's letter, were rough notes afterwards expanded 
into a reply sent to the Postmaster-General ; for Bevercotes' 
appointment seems shortly after to have been cancelled, 
and William Brewster made Post of Scrooby. Indeed, 
Sir John had prepared the way in his own letter for a 
retreat, possibly from some misgiving as to the equity of 
his procedure : * If I find cause, and may, without dis- 
gracing my cousin \i.e. Bevercotes] and touch to myself, 
I will revoke my grant, if you shall not rest satisfied that 
he have any other that shall fall void with the first. You 
shall hear and see ere long what I will do to satisfy you.' 
The outcome of it all was that Davison's chivalrous devotion 
to his friend, devotion as honourable to one side as to the 
other, carried the day against the nepotism of the Post- 
master-General, and for the next eighteen years of his life 
William Brewster filled the office at Scrooby his father and 
grandfather had filled before him. 

As everything relating to one so eminent among the 
Pilgrim Fathers of America as William Brewster came 
to be is of interest to us now, it may be worth while 
to look at the nature of his occupation as Post of Scrooby, 
from the time when he was a young man of twenty- 
three, till he reached the age of forty. Until the 
reign of Henry VIII., or perhaps even earlier, there 
was no regular system of posts in England, and for 
long after that the only four that were established were 
for the exclusive use of the sovereign. In 1572, Thomas 
Randolph, the immediate predecessor of Sir John Stanhope 
as Master of the Post to Queen Elizabeth, rendered an 
account of the charges to which he had been put in the 
execution of his trust during the preceding five years. In 
this account, no single post is mentioned without connect- 
ing it in some way closely with the person of the sovereign. 
It was • a post daily serving Her Majesty,' ' a post for 
Her Majesty's Service and affairs,' ' a post during the 



62 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

time of Her Majesty's progress,' or *a post for the 
conveyance of Her Majesty's letters and those of Her 
Council' These posts were always spoken of as journeys 
of the court, thus: i, 'The Courte to Barwick,' that is, 
the post to Scotland ; 2. ' The Courte to Beaumaris,' that 
is, the post to Ireland ; 3. ' The Courte to Dover,' that is, 
the post to the Continent; and 4. 'The Courte to 
Plymouth,' that is, the post to the Royal Dockyard. But 
the conveyance of the sovereign's letters was not the only 
purpose these posts were originally designed to serve. 
Another purpose of an important kind was that there should 
be stationed in constant readiness, and at given distances 
along these four main roads of the kingdom, a relay of 
horses, by which persons travelling on the affairs of the 
State might pass from place to place. So that it was 
rather as a means of travelling than as a means of corre- 
spondence that the post came to be used by others not 
employed on affairs of the State.^ Indeed, the increasing 
number of such persons making use of the posts for this 
purpose became an embarrassment to the public service. 
In the Privy Council Register, under date Feb. 12, 1566-7, 
there is the following entry : — 

' The Lords this day considering how much trouble daily 
groweth unto the realm abrode by continual granting from 
their lordships of letters for post-horses to diverse noble- 
men , and gentlemen being not sent for any case of the 
Queen's Majesty's Service, but travelling in their own 
private business, have thought good to order that from 
henceforth no warrant or passport be signed for any post- 
horses, except the same be for the Queen's Majesty's 
Service.' 

The earliest instructions we have for the regulation of 
the post were issued about the time the elder Brewster 

^ History of the Post Office down to 1836; by Herbert Joyce, C.B., 
•of the Post Office. 1893. 



SCROOB Y AND A USTERFIELD. 63 

ofificiated at Scrooby. Every ' Post ' was to keep and have 
constantly ready two horses at least, with suitable ' furni- 
ture ' ; he was also to have at least two bags of leather 
well lined with baize or cotton, and a horn for the driver 
to blow 'as oft as he meets company,' or four times in 
every mile. After receiving the packet entrusted to him, 
the driver was to start within fifteen minutes, and to run 
in the summer at the rate of seven miles an hour, and in 
winter five. The address of the packet of State letters and 
the day and hour at which it was received were to be 
carefully entered in a book to be kept for the purpose.^ 
The pace prescribed for travelling was not always kept 
even in summer, for in 1589, when the younger Brewster 
was acting for his sick father, there was a charge of 
negligence as to the transmission of a despatch sent from 
Berwick to London by Sir Henry Wodrington on the 25th 
of August. It appears from the Articles of Charge that 
the one hundred and fifty-five miles between Berwick and 
Newark took eighty-three hours to travel, so that the pace 
was less than two miles an hour. The despatch in question 
left Doncaster ' at ij in the morninge and reached to the 
post of Scrobie,' that is, came into young William Brewster's 
hands, ' the same day at iiij in the morning. Soe in riding 
vij miles ij houres,' ^ which came nearer to the regulation 
pace.^ 

^ Joyce's History of the Post Office. 

- State Papei's^ Domestic. Elizabeth. Addenda, Vol. xxxi., 40, 
1589. 

^ This was not the first time that complaint had to be made 
concerning the dilatoriness of the Northern Post, as the following 
extract from the Privy Council Register shows: '29 August, 1558. 
A lettre to Sir John Mason signifying unto him the usual slackness 
of the Postes layed northwarde in the conveyance of letters hither, 
and the opening of them by the way, and therefore requiring of him 
to give orders forthwith for their reformation on that behalf, or else 
the Queen's Majesty must be enforced to discharge them every one, 
and to seek some new means to be served from time to time with a 
through Poste.' 



64 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

The office of * Post ' on the four great roads was one of 
more importance and responsibility than that of a country- 
postmaster of our time. As we have seen, the position at 
Scrooby was sought for by Samuel Bevercotes, who is 
described as a lawyer of Gray's Inn. In Brewster's days 
also, Rowland Whyte, who was a correspondent of many 
of the nobility of the time, was the ' Post of the Court' 
Nicholas Heyford, and after him Ralph Aslaby, was post 
at Doncaster, and Heyford and Aslaby were both names 
of respectable families in the south part of the West 
Riding of Yorkshire, corresponding in social position, as ' 
we may suppose, with the Brewsters.^ The emoluments 
of the office were from ;^275 to ;^325 a year in present 
value. From Sir John Stanhope's account, declared before 
Lord Burghley, the Lord High Treasurer, and Sir John 
Fortescue, Chancellor of the Exchequer, March 31, 1597, 
for the three preceding years, we find that from April 1594, 
to April 1597, 'William Brewster, Post of Scrooby, for his 
ordinary wages, serving Her Majesty all the time aforesaid, 
at 2.od. per diem, £c)\ 6s. 8<^.' From the ist of July, 1603, 
Brewster's wages were advanced from 2od. to 2s. a day,^ 
as is shown by the following entry : ' William Brewster, 
Post of Scrooby, for his wages as well, at 2od. per diem for 
640 days, begun the ist of July, 1603, and ended the last 
of March, 1605, £^02! The latest account in which 
Brewster's name occurs brings us to the very time when, as 
we shall see hereafter, the members of the church at 
Scrooby had to flee from persecution to Holland. This, 
entry is interesting, therefore, as telling us precisely when 

^ Hunter's Collection, p. 70. 

2 It has been seen that Adam Gascoyne was to have four shillings 
a day in 1546 till further order taken. The varying scale of payment 
may be explained by the following extract from the Privy Council 
Register: 'At St. James. 19 Oct. 1557. It was the day agreed 
by the Boarde that the Postes serving northerwarde shal have from 
the xvth of this present moneth, during the ivarres xxd. a pece by the 
daie for theire better rehefe and enterteignement.' 



SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 65 

William Brewster went into exile, and who his successor 
was at Scrooby. ' William Brewster, Post of Scrooby, for 
his wages at 2s. per diem for 183 days, begun the ist of 
April, 1607, and ended the last of September, 1607, 
£\% 6s.\ and then Francis Hall succeeding him at 2s. per 
diem for 548 days begun the ist of October, 1607, and 
ended the last of March, 1609,^73 2i-.' ^ This at a time 
when a skilled workman's wages were fixed at eightpence 
a day- would amount to from £2"]^ to ^325 a year. 
There would seem also to have been additional income 
accruing from other sources besides State payment. In 
1605, Sir Timothy Hutton, the son of the Archbishop of 
York, journeying to and from London, paid to the 'post' 
at Scrooby, who must have been William Brewster, for a 
conveyance and guide to Tuxford, ten shillings, and for a 
candle, supper, and breakfast, seven shillings and tenpence, 
so that he slept under Brewster's roof On his return he 
paid to the post at Scrooby eight shillings for conveying 
him to Doncaster, and two shillings for burnt sack, bread, 
beer, and sugar to wine, and threepence to the ostler.^ 
Thus the postmaster, while enlarging his income as hotel- 
keeper at the old manor house, was again brought into 
frequent contact with some of the most distinguished 
persons both of Church and State, who as they travelled 
the great North Road came to abide under his roof 

Before proceeding to speak of the fortunes of the 
Pilgrim Church at Scrooby, there is one other man, the 
life-long friend and biographer of William Brewster, 
scarcely second in interest to Brew^ster himself, to whom 
we may turn for a moment or two. This was William 
Bradford, afterwards Governor Bradford of Plymouth 
Colony, and the historian of Plymouth Plantation. He 
was born at Austerfield — in Domesday it is called Oitstre- 

^ Quoted in Hunter's Collections, pp. 66-68. 
" Hatfield MSS., iv., 455. 

^ Surtees' Society Publications. Vol. xvii., pp. 197-204. 

F 



66 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

feld, whether from the Scandinavian word oster, for east, or 
whether because the Roman Ostorius was here defeated 
by the Romans, it may not be easy to say. This is an 
ancient village about three miles from Scrooby on the 
Yorkshire side, consisting of a few houses inhabited by a 
population of about three hundred and fifty persons, chiefly 
engaged in agricultural pursuits. There is still a Roman 
camp near the village, and there was a chapel here even 
before 1229 which belonged to the canons of Blyth, to 
whom it was given by John de Buslis. Probably the 
present quaint old church of the place, dedicated to St. 
Helen, is substantially the same as that erected by De 
Buslis. It is a stone edifice partly Norman in style, 
consisting of a chancel and nave under a single roof, 
having a porch on the south side, and surmounting the 
western gable a bell-cote similar to that of the beautiful 
church at Wycliffe, containing two small bells. The 
chancel arch is Norman, and the south doorway of the 
same period has two nook shafts with cushioned caps, 
supporting an arch enriched with zigzag and beak-headed 
moulding, in the tympanum being a rude figure of a dragon 
with other ornaments. The interior was re-pewed in an ex- 
cruciating manner about sixty years ago, but the outside 
remains probably much as it was when on March 19, 1589 
(N.S. 1590), William Bradford was brought to be baptised 
by Henry Fletcher, who in his own neat, clear hand entered 
the record in the old register, which goes back to 1559. 

Bradford, born in the same year that Brewster w^as 
appointed Post at Scrooby, was thus his junior by some 
three-and-twenty years, and was only a youth of about 
seventeen when he began to consort with the brethren 
meeting in Scrooby Manor House. The house in which 
he is reputed to have been born is still shown by the side 
of the road as we make our way to the church. His 
father seems to have been a yeoman of fairly good position ; 
but he died when William was little more than a year old, 




SOUTH DOORWAY, AUSTERFIELD CHURCH. 



F 2 



SCROOBY AND AUSTERFIELD. 69 

leaving him, as Cotton Mather tells us, a comfortable 
inheritance. The fatherless child thus left was committed 
to the care of his grandfather, who also died some five 
years later, after which the boy was brought up by his 
uncles William, Thomas, and Robert Bradford, or Brad- 
furth, ' who devoted him, like his ancestors, unto the affairs 
of husbandry.' Some idea of the social position of the 
Bradfords may be gathered from the fact that William's 
maternal grandfather, John Hanson, shared with old 
William Bradford the honour of being the only subsidy- 
men at Austerfield ; and also from the will of his uncle, 
* Robert Bradfurth, of Austerfield, yeoman.* In this the 
testator, who was of the yeoman class — the class in the 
reign of Elizabeth next to the acknowledged gentry, using 
coat-armour of right — sets out with declarations of his 
Christian faith in more energetic terms than usual, and 
then leaves bequests to Austerfield Chapel, and to Thomas 
Silvester, clerk. He leaves to one of his servants, Grace 
Wade, the free use of a dwelling-house, and to others small 
legacies ; to his son Robert he gives his best iron-bound 
wain, the cupboard in the * house ' — the apartment corre- 
sponding to the modern parlour — and one long form, with 
his best yoke of oxen, also the ' counter wherein the 
evidences are.' He leaves him also the piece of armour 
known as the corslet, with all the furniture thereto 
belonging. While he divides the residue of his property 
equally among all his four children, he directs that his son 
Robert shall have the reversion of two leases ; the one of 
all the king's lands he has in Austerfield, the other of the 
closes which he has of Mr. Morton in Martin lordship. 
He consigns the care of his four children, who were all 
under age, to * my good neighbour Mr. Richardson, of 
Bawtry,' William Downes, of Scrooby, and Mr. Silvester, of 
Alkley. We may fairly infer from this that the Bradfords 
were in good repute and association with the more 
prosperous of their neighbours, for, next to the Mortons 



70 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Mr. Richardson was the most considerable person then 
living at Bawtry ; Mr. Downes was a subsidy-man at 
Scrooby, while Mr. Silvester, the third of the guardians of 
Robert Bradford's children, was a divine at Alkley, 
possessed of a fair estate, and, what perhaps had some 
influence on the intellectual growth of the future governor 
of Plymouth Colony, was possessed also of a library of 
English and Latin books at a time when in the rural parts 
of England books were costly and few As a quaint 
illustration of the times, it may be mentioned that this 
good divine of Alkley, by his will, made in 1615, gave to 
the poor scholars of the grammar school at Rossington his 
Cooper s Dictionary, to be chained to a stall in the church, 
and used by them as long as it will last.^ 

Such, with their local and social surroundings in early 
life, were the two men William Brewster and William 
Bradford, who were to impress their own individuality so 
powerfully upon the religious life of the American people. 
The friendship which sprang up between them amid the 
tranquil surroundings of the North Midlands of their 
native land was to be deepened by common labours and 
aspirations, and by common hardships and sufferings 
endured side by side both in the Old World and the New. 
Through all the discipline of coming years they were to be 
trained by Him who leads men in a way they know not, 
for service the issues of which they see not. The honour 
of helping humanity forward towards its great consumma- 
tion can only thus be won by those who are willing to bear 
the cross to the steep of Calvary, to go through sorrow and 
self-sacrifice with meekness and magnanimous patience : 

We know the arduous strife, the eternal laws 
To which the triumph of all good is given. 
High sacrifices, and labour without pause, 
Even to the death : — else wherefore should the eye 
Of man converse with immortality ? 



^ Hunter's Collections, pp. 103-109. 




< ^ 



( 73 ) 




THE BRIDGE, GAINSBOROUGH. 
(From a sketch bi/ Charles Whvmpek.) 

III. 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 

When the Pilgrim Fathers of New England founded 
Plymouth Colony, they did so as a federal body 
bound together by solemn, social compact, and not as 
separate emigrants drawn by mere accident to the same 
settlement. This special character of the colony, which 
had important political results in after time, may be 
explained by the fact that its founders had first been in 
fellowship in the same Christian community in the Old 
World before they were colonists together in the New. 
The Covenant of Citizenship signed on board the May- 



74 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

flower, in 1620, really had its origin in that 'Covenant of 
the Lord ' which, * as the Lord's free people,' the members 
of the Church, first at Gainsborough, and then at Scrooby, 
solemnly made, ' to walk together in all His ways made 
known, or to be made known to them, according to their 
best endeavours, whatsoever it should cost them, the Lord 
assisting them.' 

The church thus founded by covenant, unlike the other 
Separatist churches we have already met with in London, 
or in provincial cities like Norwich, took its rise in a 
scattered rural district, remote from the great centres of 
population. What is also remarkable is that this church 
took its rise in a region where, a generation or two before, 
the people had risen in revolt against Protestantism and in 
favour of retaining Roman Catholicism as the religion of 
the National Church, It was only some forty miles from 
Scrooby, as the crow flies, and only about thirty years 
before William Brewster was born, that the insurrection 
known as the * Pilgrimage of Grace ' took its rise. For it 
was on October 2, 1536, that the Ecclesiastical Commis- 
sioners for the Suppression of Monasteries were to hold 
their visitation at Louth, and it was then the people of 
Lincolnshire rose in armed rebellion against them. As 
one of the commissioners rode into the town the alarm 
bell pealed out from Louth Tower, and the inhabitants 
swarmed into the streets with bills and staves, ' the stir 
and noise arising hideous.' The commissioner, alarmed 
for his safety, fled into the church for sanctuary, but was 
soon brought out into the market-place, and with a sword 
held at his breast was made to swear to be true to the 
Commons upon pain of death. There were risings, too, at 
Caistor and at Horncastle, where the bishop's chancellor 
was murdered in the street ; at Lincoln also, where the 
bishop's palace was attacked and plundered. Before the 
week was out all the countryside was in movement, 



4 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 7? 

beacons blazing, alarm bells ringing, and whole parishes 
rising to demand that the suppressed monasteries should 
be restored, and the new Protestant bishops deprived and 
punished. From the Lincolnshire side of Scrooby the 
rising spread to the Yorkshire side also, taking even more 
serious shape. It was at Scrooby that on October 21, the 
Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Steward of the King's Household 
and Lieutenant-General from the Trent northward, was in 
anxious consultation with the Earls of Rutland and 
Huntingdon concerning this Catholic rebellion, and it was 
from Scrooby that same day they sent Thomas Myller, 
Lancaster Herald, as he himself tells us, 'with a proclama- 
tion to be read amongst the traitors and rebellious persons 
assembled at Pomfret, contrary to the King's laws.' ^ 

The intense feeling of hostility thus manifested against 
the Reformation, in the district of which Scrooby may 
be roughly regarded as the centre, was doubtless largely 
owing to the numerous monasteries the district con- 
tained. All the more conspicuous monastic orders had 
their representatives within a comparatively short distance 
of the village where William Brewster was born. There 
were Cistercians at Rufford, Gilbertines at Mattersey^ 
Carthusians in the Isle of Axholm, Benedictine monks 
at Blythe, Benedictine nuns at Wallingwells, Augustinians 
at Worksop, and Premonstratensians at Welbeck — the 
chief house of that order in the country — so that to- 
gether they seemed to form a circle round that part of 
he Basset-Lawe Hundred to which Scrooby belonged. 
The influence of these great religious houses remained 
after they themselves were suppressed, and goes far to 
explain why, long after the Reformation, so many of 
the county families of the neighbourhood, the Molineuxes 
and Markhams, the Cliftons and Mortons, the Countess 
of Shrewsbury at Rufford, and her sister Frances Lady 
1 State Papers. Henry VIII. Part II., p. 462, sq. 1536. 



76 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Pierrepoint at Thoresby, held tenaciously to the Church 
of Rome, and in Elizabeth's reign were ready, many of 
them, to face dangers and endure hardship in its service. 

In the second half of the sixteenth century, however, 
other influences had been at work in a contrary direction. 
Many of the ministers introduced to the parish churches 
of the district were of a strongly marked Puritan type. 
Bradford, in his History of Plyinoiith Plantation, distinctly 
traces the rise of the Scrooby church, of which he was 
himself one of the foremost members, to the religious 
influence exercised by the Puritan clergy. He tells us 
that it was ' by the travail and diligence of some godly 
and zealous preachers and God's blessing on their labours, 
as in some other places of the land, so in the north parts, 
many became enlightened by the Word of God, and had 
their ignorance and sins discovered unto them, and began 
by His grace to reform their lives and make conscience of 
their ways.' The movement, therefore, was from the first 
distinctly spiritual in its character, proceeding from earnest 
men with a deep sense of the infinite, and feeling the 
gravity and grandeur of eternal things. The craving for 
the new life thus created by the truth and the Spirit of 
truth, also kindled in them a spirit of holy indignation 
against the abuse of sacred things they saw going on 
around them. The free spirit of Englishmen was stirred 
within them as they saw what they described as * base and 
beggarly ceremonies ' retained in the Church, and enforced 
both upon clergy and laity by ' the lordly and tyrannous 
power of the prelates, which ought not to be submitted 
unto.' They protested that it was ' contrary to the 
freedom of the Gospel so to load and burden men's 
consciences, and by their compulsive power to make a 
prophane mixture of persons and things in the worship of 
God.' They maintained that these ecclesiastical 'offices 
and callings, courts and canons were unlawful and un- 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 77 

Christian, and had no warrant in the Word of God.' * So 
many, therefore, of these professors as saw the evil of these 
things in these parts, and whose hearts the Lord had 
touched with heavenly zeal for His truth, shook off this 
yoke of anti-Christian bondage, and as the Lord's free 
people joined themselves, by a covenant of the Lord, 
into a church estate, in the fellowship of the Gospel.' 

We are able to recall to our minds some at least of the 
godly and zealous preachers whose travail and diligence 
in that region produced such enduring results. Between 
six and seven miles due south of Scrooby was the village 
of Bab worth, close to Retford. It had for its rector in 
those days Richard Clyfton, described by Bradford as ' a 
grave and reverend preacher, who by his pains and 
diligence had done much good.' He was instituted to 
the rectory of Babworth on July ii, 1586, and was 
probably set aside from his cure about the time of Ban- 
croft's enforcement of the canons of 1603. Long years 
afterwards, when he was growing an old man himself in 
his New England home, William Bradford recalled the 
name and memory of this good man, whom in his youth 
he walked some nine miles from Austerfield on Sunday 
mornines to hear. There is a touch of filial affection in 

o 

the way he speaks of him. He says : ' He was a grave 
and fatherly old man when he came first into Holland, 
having a great white beard; and pity it is that such a 
reverend old man should be forced to leave his country and 
at those years to go into exile. But it was his lot, and he 
bore it patiently. Much good had he done in the country 
where he lived, and converted many to God by his faithful 
and painful ministry, both in preaching and catechizing.' 

Even Richard Bernard, his clerical neighbour at 
Worksop, though in after years they took divers ways,, 
could not help saying that Richard Clyfton was one 
whom he truly and entirely loved as a man devoted to 



78 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

God, and every way worthy of love for his irreprovable 
life and conversation. This venerable man, who seems to 
have been the spiritual father of many of those who formed 
the Scrooby church, became their first pastor, and in 1608, 
.as we shall see, went with them into exile to Amsterdam.^ 
We have already mentioned Clyfton's clerical neighbour 
Richard Bernard, the vicar of Worksop, who was one of the 
notable men of the Basset-Lawe Hundred, and who, as 
living only some eight miles south-east of Scrooby, came 
to be well known to the brethren there. Judging from a 
rather fine portrait of him which has come down to us, he 
was a noticeable man to meet in a countr)' road or to 
listen to from the pulpit of a country church. After 
'graduating at Cambridge he was, in 1598, presented to 
the living of Epworth in Lincolnshire, the birthplace of 
John Wesley and Alexander Kilham, where he began his 
h'terary career by publishing a quaint translation of 
Terence, and on June 19, 1 601, he was instituted to the 
vicarage of Worksop. He is interesting to us as the man 
in controversy with whom John Robinson wrote the 
greatest work of his life, and interesting for his own sake, 
too, as a writer of more than ordinary versatility and 
•genius. His book, entitled TJie Isle of Man, or the Legal I 
Proceeding in Man-shire against Sin, shows hini to have 
been an original allegorist long before John Bunyan took 
up his pen. Indeed, it is not possible to compare this 
work with Bunyan's Holy War, or the Losing and Taking 
again of Ma//sonl, without coming to the conclusion that 
the Great Dreamer had read the book and received many 
suggestions from it. Bernard, for example, tells us that in 
travelling through the Isle of Man he came to the ' county 

^ He was later the author of A Plea for Infants and Elder People 
concerning their Baptism. Printed at Amsterdam, by Giles Thorp, 
1610; also oi An Advertisement concerning a Book lately published 
by C. Lawne a7id others against the English Exiled Church at 
Amsterdam. 161 2. 




RICHARD BERNARD. j 

{From an old jrint.) Os^ 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 8i 

towne called Soule.' This Soule's-towne is a place of 
great resort, a thorowfare never without travellers, and 
has four great streets : Sense Street, Thought Street, 
Word Street, and Deed Street, along which that pestilent 
thief Sin, with his Copemates, may often be found wan- 
dering. There is also a Common Inne in the place kept 
by Mistress Heart, who lives there with one Old Man. 
This Inne is a well-accustomed house, for many pests, which 
are Satan's suggestions, take up their lodgings there. It 
has five doors, the five senses, for the guests to come in at, 
and these guests are well-waited upon, for Mistress Heart 
hath the eleven passions for her maids, and her man Will 
hath at his com.mand the feet, the hands, and the tongue, 
who act as hostler, tapster, and chamberlaine. The book is 
in two parts ; the first setting forth the search for, the 
attacking and imprisoning of Sin, the second narrating the 
trial, before the bar of Conscience, and a jury of the Virtues, 
of Old Man, Mistress Heart, Covetousness, and Idolatry. 
There is considerable resemblance between this second 
part and the trial of the Diabolonians, Atheism, Hard-heart, 
False-peace, No-truth, and Pitiless, decribed by Bunyan as 
taking place in Mansoul ; and Bernard is almost as happy 
in hitting off some of his names as Bunyan himself 

Curiously enough, in this book he not only anticipated 
one Bedfordshire worthy, but also another who did honour 
to its county town — John Howard, the prison philan- 
thropist. In the Epistle to the Reader, Bernard pleads on 
behalf of an ' unbegun worke ' in the interest of the 
prisoners in the gaols of the kingdom. He says that the 
state of these prisoners is well known, and how their souls' 
safety is neglected ; he urges, therefore, the appointment of 
prison chaplains. He pleads also for prison labour against 
the then existing system of wasteful and destructive 
idleness : ' If there should be means to set them on 
worke they might get somewhat for food and raiment. 

G 



82 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

They might so prevent the miserable fruits of sloth ; their 
minds would be imployed, their bodies be preserved in 
health, and not pine away.' Enforced labour would, he 
thinks, 'terrific loose vagrants, lazie wanderers, and the 
idle route from turning theeves.' The prison is now, he 
says, ' a very picture of Hell, and (more is the pity), as 
the case now stands, is no less than a preparation 
thereto ; ' whereas if prisoners were treated as he suggests, 
they would, on their release, ' become through God's 
mercie more profitable members in the Common-Weale 
afterwards ; whereas now they become twice more the 
children of Belial than they were before.' 

The man who could say this a hundred and fifty years 
before John Howard published his Survey of the State of 
Prisons, was no commonplace observer, but one who 
looked at things with his own eyes and could think his 
own thoughts. That he was an earnest preacher of Christ's 
Gospel, as well as a social reformer before the days of social 
reform, may be gathered from another book of his entitled, 
The Faithfull Shepeard, or the S/iepeard's Faithfttlnesse. 
It is an appeal for an earnest ministry as the need of the 
times, and also serves as a study in Homiletics. He is 
severe on those among the gentry who think the ministry 
of the Gospel beneath the notice of their sons : ' Some of 
our states and gentrie wish their children anything ; 
worldly lawyers, fraudulent merchants, killing physicians, 
bloody captains, idle, loose livers, swearing ruffians, 
walkers on Shooter's Hill, and coursers on Salisburie 
Plains, to maintain their riot, rather than as they call 
them — priests. And yet this state is magnified of God 
and man.' In charging young preachers he advises them 
not to venture into regions too high for them : ' Con- 
troversies require sharpness of wit and some cunning to 
find out Satan's sophistries. Young cockerills that begin 
but to crowe may not set upon the great cocks of the 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 83 

game.' Beginners in the work of preaching sometimes 
' want seemly gesture ' from two opposite causes : first, 
from rash boldness or an inconsiderate zeal, 'they have 
moved them to violent motions, as casting abroad of their 
armes, smiting on the pulpit, lifting themselves up and 
againe suddenly stamping downe.' On the other hand, 
they fall into undesirable ways through 'too great feare and 
bashfulness, which causeth hemmings, spittings, rubbing 
the browes, lifting up of the shoulders, nodding of the 
head, taking often hold of the cloake or gowne, fidling 
with the fingers upon the breast buttons, stroaking of the 
beard and such-like toies.' 

This vivid piece of literature is dated 'Worksop, June 16, 
1607,' and therefore saw the light the very year the 
Scrooby church was worshipping at the old manor house 
before going into exile, and its author must have been a 
familiar presence to Brewster and Bradford at the time it 
was written. The truth is, that Richard Bernard was at 
one time so entirely in sympathy with the views on church 
life held by the Scrooby brethren that they expected him 
to become a Separatist with them. He went so far as to set 
up a Congregational church within the walls of his parish 
church, ' did separate from the rest ' of the parishioners 
' a hundred voluntary professors into covenant with the 
Lord, sealed up with the Lord's Supper, to forsake all 
known sin, to hear no wicked or dumb ministers.' This 
is what John Robinson^ tells us of him, and his neigh- 
bour John Smyth of Gainsborough ' Took notice of his 
forwardness in leading to a reformation by public pro- 
clamation in several pulpits, as if he had meant contrary 
to the king's mind to have carried all the people of the 
country after him against the ceremonies and subscription.' ^ 

^ Works, II., loi, 

^ Paralleles, Censures, Observations. A Letter to Mr. Ric. 
Bernard. 1609. 

G 2 



84 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

After the passing of the canons of 1603, Bernard did 
indeed for a while refuse subscription or conformity, but 
on being silenced by the Archbishop of York he began to 
reconsider his ways. The new light thrown upon his 
opinions by this action of the archbishop gave him pause, 
and led him to say : ' Time is an instructor to a diligent 
searcher ; I see now what then I saw not . . . Through 
ignorance, which taketh for light that which is darkness, I 
was tossed by the present tempest sometime to a favouring 
but otherwhile to a great dislike. ... I confess I was 
much moved with fair show of Scripture, but I was not 
removed.' When danger threatened he faced about and 
kept his place ; and, what is perhaps not unusual with men 
of his class, from the time of his own retreat he began to 
assail those with whom he had formerly agreed. It was 
this which led John Robinson to say to him in solemn 
searching way : ' A speech of your own uttered to myself 
(ever to be remembered with fear and trembling) cannot 
I forget, when after conference between Mr. H[elwisse} 
and^ me you uttered these words : " Well, I will return 
home and preach as I have done, and I must say as 
Naaman did, The Lord be merciful to me in this thing." ' ^ 

Besides Richard Clyfton, who went forward even to 
exile, and Richard Bernard, who drew back, there were 
other Puritan ministers in the neighbourhood, such as 
Thomas Toller, of Sheffield, who was presented before the 
Ecclesiastical Court at York in 1607, and of whom the 
records say : ' Did not appear in the Visitation, is said to 
be a Preciscian, if not a Brownist ; he is no observer of the 
Book of Common Prayer, nor any way conformable ta 
order.' Robert Gififord, also of Laughton-en-le-Northen, 
though he did not go the length of actual separation, was 
one of those ministers who ' seemed weary of the cere- 
monies,' and whom Bradford describes as being 'hotly 
1 Works, II., 8. 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 8$ 

pursued by the prelates.' There was yet another clergyman 
of the neighbourhood, Hugh Bromhead, who shared these 
convictions so strongly as to give up his living and go into 
exile. In a letter to his cousin, William Hamerton, who 
remonstrated with him on the step he had taken, he 
expresses his convictions strongly and clearly. Among 
other reasons he gives for his separation from the National 
Church, he emphasises two, on which stress was laid by the 
early Congregationalists. He left, he says, ' For that the 
profane, ungodly multitude, without exception of any one 
person, are with them received into and retained in the 
bosom of the Church ' ; also, ' for that these churches are 
ruled by and remain in subjection unto an antichristian 
and ungodly government, clean contrary to the institution 
of our Saviour Christ.'^ 

Besides these brethren on the Nottinghamshire side of 
the Trent, averse to what they regarded as Romish con- 
cessions in the Church, there were Puritan ministers also 
across the river in Lincolnshire, who in 1605 published an 
abridgment of the points at issue between themselves and 
the conformable clergy. In this pamphlet they state that 
they can join with the Church in her doctrines and sacra- 
ments, but cannot declare their approbation of the cere- 
monies. These men, as more scrupulous than some of 
their brethren, were yet not favourers of the Presbyterian 
discipline, and were therefore called ' the brethren of the 
Second Separation.' ^ 

The Puritan feeling thus fostered by many of the clergy 
themselves on both sides the Trent finally took actual 
shape in the formation of a Separatist community, first of 
all in the town of Gainsborough, in the year 1602. This 
town, where the northern Separatists first entered into 
organised Christian fellowship, was one of the most ancient 

1 Harl. MSS. 360, fol. 70. 

^ Lathbury's History of Episcopacy, p. 74. 1836. 



86 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

in the kingdom. On the site of the quaint old hall still 
standing by the banks of the Trent, once stood the palace 
in which King Alfred was married, and where Canute, the 
son of Sweyn, vvas born. It was here also that Canute was 
proclaimed King of England by the captains of his navy, 
and where, as tradition says, he rebuked his courtiers by 
commanding the onward rushing eagre in the stream of the 
Trent to stand still. In the old hall itself Henry VIII. 
held his court in 1541, after spending the night at Scrooby 
manor house on his way to receive their submission and 
peace-offerings from the Yorkshire malcontents, A native 
of Gainsborough, of Oriel fame, has told us that in his time 
it was the most foreign-looking town he knew in England. 
It seemed to him that the red-fluted tiles, the yellow-ochre 
doorsteps, the green outside shutters, the frequent appear- 
ance of the jawbones of whales, utilised as garden gate- 
posts, and, above all, the masts and spars suddenly 
appearing high over cornfields, took one quite out of 
every-day England. With the enthusiasm of a man re- 
calling the days of his youth, he tells how he and his 
brothers used to climb Pringle Hill, from the top of which 
they could see the western towers of the great minster of 
Lincoln, eighteen miles away, a glorious vision standing 
out in the sky, clear of the horizon. To him, too, in these 
boyish days the region across the Trent, looking west- 
ward towards Scrooby, with its comfortable towns and 
villages, its thriving homesteads, its vast fields of wheat, its 
mansions great and small, and its tall church-towers, 
seemed like a man-made paradise, the first stage into 
England and the world for him.^ 

This town, then, of ancient fame, and with associations 
both rural and marine, was the meeting-place of the first 
Separatist church in the north of which we have any 

^ Reminiscences chiefly of Towns ^ and Villages, and Schools. By- 
Rev. T. Mozley, M.A., formerly Fellow of Oriel. 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 87 

definite account. Two things, in addition to the Puritan 
feeling of the district, may have contributed to this. First, 
the town was remote from great cities, and from it in times 
of persecution flight to the Continent was comparatively- 
easy ; and next, it is tolerably certain that the lord of the 
manor, William Hickman, who had purchased the manor 
of Gainsborough from Lord Burgh in 1 596, was in sym- 
pathy with the Puritans of the time. We know that his 
parents, Anthony and Rose Hickman, had suffered for 
their strong Protestant sympathy in the previous genera- 
tion. His venerable mother, in the year 1620, when in 
her eighty-fifth year, and probably in the old hall itself 
wrote for the benefit of her children the story of her life 
during the persecuting days of Queen Mary. She came of 
a true Protestant lineage. She remembered hearing her 
father. Sir William Locke, say that when he was a young 
merchant, and went beyond sea, Ann Boleyn caused him 
to get her the Gospels and Epistles written on parchment 
in French, together with the Psalms. Then when she 
herself became the young wife of Anthony Hickman, her 
husband was not unmindful to use and employ his sub- 
stance to the glory of God and good of His Church, as 
he daily manifested by giving entertainment to Bishop 
Hooper, John Foxe, the martyrologist, John Knox, the 
Scottish Reformer, and divers other godly preachers, of 
which some did afterwards suffer martyrdom in Queen 
Mary's days. They also held conventicles in their house, 
with divers godly and well-disposed Christians, ' and we 
and they did table together [i.e., observe the Lord's 
Supper] in a chamber, keeping the door close shut for fear 
of the promoters, as we read in the Gospel the disciples of 
Christ did for fear of the Jews.' For such practices as 
these, and for not conforming themselves to Popery accord- 
ing to the Queen's Injunctions, her husband and her brother 
were called before the Court of High Commission and sent 



88 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

close prisoners to the Fleet. On her husband's release she 
went to Antwerp into exile with him, for, said she, * I 
accounted all nothing in comparison to liberty of conscience 
for the profession of Christ.' Recalling the rough experi- 
ences of those bygone times, she piously says : * For all 
our blessings and deliverances sent to me from my good 
God, I most humbly beseech His Majesty that I and mine 
may never forget to be thankful.' She has written this 
narrative, she says, in the hope that her children ' may 
stand fast in that faith and service of God into which their 
father and mother do stand so firmly, and manifest such 
zeal and affection as in this little treatise appeareth.' ^ 

The lord of the manor of Gainsborough from 1596 to 
1625, was one of the children of this venerable lady for 
whom this pious wish was expressed. That he had some 
devout feeling himself would seem to be indicated by the 
motto he placed' with his initials on the sundial of the west 
wing of the old hall : — Dens mi — iit umbra sic vita. Is it 
improbable that a lord of the manor so trained and so 
expressing himself would be favourable and friendly to 
such earnest Christian men as those who founded the 
church at Gainsborough in 1602? Is it beyond the 
bounds of possibility that he in whose father's house 
conventicles had been held in Mary's days, should favour 
them in or near his own house in the days of Elizabeth 
and James? May it not even be permitted to us to believe 
that both he and the godly mother who reared him were 
sometimes found worshipping with Brewster and Bradford, 
perhaps in the old hall itself, ' accounting all nothing,' as 
she said, in comparison to liberty of conscience for the 
profession of Christ ? 

The pastor of this Gainsborough church was John 

^ * Certaine Old Stories recorded by an aged Gentlewoman. 
Written by her with her owne hand, 1620.' Stark's History of 
Gainsborough, pp. 126-139. 1817. 




THE OLD HALL, GAINSBOROUGH. 
{From sketcJus by Charles Whymper.) 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 91 

Smyth, M.A., of Christ's College, Cambridge, where he 
graduated 1575-6, and where he had Francis Johnson for 
tutor, a man of whom we shall hear more hereafter. In 
1585, he preached a sermon at Cambridge on Sabbath- 
keeping, for which he was cited before the vice-chancellor. 
William Bradford tells us that he was an eminent man in 
his time and a good preacher and of other good parts. In 
a work of his entitled Paralleles, Cetisui'es, Observations, &c., 
he states that before separating from the National Church 
he passed through several months of anxious doubt and 
inquiry, and at one time held a conference at Coventry as 
to the duty of withdrawing from churches in which the 
ministry and the worship have become corrupted. He is 
said to have been beneficed at Gainsborough before becom- 
ing pastor of the separated church in that town. This is 
scarcely probable, inasmuch as the following list covers the 
period: John Jackson, vicar, 1589; Henry Clifford, 1608; 
Francis Spiers, 16 10. Moreover he appears to have been 
labouring at Lincoln previous to coming to Gainsborough. 

A few years ago. Professor Whitsitt, of Amsterdam, 
found in the library of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 
a little book of his entitled : ' The bright i)W7-ning starre, or 
the resolutioit and exposition of the 22 P saline. Preached 
publicly in foure sermons at Lincoln by John Smith, 
preacher of this Citie. Printed 1603.' The book seems 
to have been printed after he left Lincoln, otherwise the 
date of the foundation of the Gainsborough church would 
be a year later than is usually supposed. He was a 
man of fervent soul, following truth wherever it seemed to 
lead him, but somewhat extreme and unstable. In some 
respects he reminds us of Richard Baxter, and perhaps 
most of all in this, that towards the close of his life he 
published as ' the last book of John Smyth,' what he called 
TJie retraction of his errors, a copy of which has been 
preserved in the library of York Minster. This shows that 



92 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

in the nearing prospect of that ' all-reconciling world where 
Luther and Zuinglius are well agreed,' he came to lay- 
more stress on the true essentials of the Christian life and 
less upon mere outside questions. His desire, he said, was 
to end controversies among Christians rather than to make 
and maintain them, especially in matters of the outward 
Church and ceremonies. It is the grief of his heart that 
he has so long cumbered himself and spent his time 
therein. Henceforth difference in judgment in matters 
of circumstance shall not cause him to refuse the brother- 
hood of any penitent and faithful Christian whatsoever. 
More than in the past he will spend his time in the main 
matters wherein consisteth salvation. 

When driven from Gainsborough into exile Smyth prac- 
tised as a physician in Amsterdam, usually, however, taking 
nothing of the poorer sort. A kind-hearted man, who gave 
away his own gown to make clothes for one slenderly 
apparelled, ' he was well-beloved of most men, and hated 
of none save a few of our English nation, who had nothing 
against him but that he differed from them in some points 
of religion.' This was the man who from 1602 to 1606 was 
pastor of the Gainsborough Church. The members of that 
church gathered to its services for miles from the country 
round. All the way from Austerfield and Scrooby, ten or 
twelve miles distant, William Bradford came with William 
Brewster and the rest of the brethren and sisters from 
Scrooby, having Sabbath day converse about the things 
of the kingdom as they journeyed past Scaftworth, 
Everton and Gringley-on-the-Hill to the ferry-boat on the 
Trent. This went on for three or four years, till at 
length * these people became two distinct bodies or 
churches, and in regard of distance of place did congregate 
severally ; for they were of sundry towns and villages,' 
where the three counties border nearest together. From 
this time forward therefore the brethren nearest to Scrooby 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 93 

met at Scrooby, forming that church in the old manor 
house which has become historic and with which henceforth 
we are solely concerned. 

This second community, Bradford tells us, ' ordinarily 
met at William Brewster's house on the Lord's day, and 
with great love he entertained them when they came, 
making provision for them, to his great charge.' For years 
past, ever since he had returned from the court to the 
manor house he had taken a foremost part in promoting 
the spiritual welfare of the district. That the preachers in 
the churches round were the earnest men they were seems 
to have been largely owing to him. ' He did much good in 
the country where he lived in promoting and furthering 
religion, not only by his practice and example and 
provoking and encouraging of others, but by procuring 
good preachers to the places thereabout, and drawing on 
of others to assist and help forward in such a work, he 
himself most commonly deepest in the charge, and 
sometimes above his ability.' 

So things went on from 1590, when he came back to 
Scrooby, till the end of the century, ' he doing the best good 
he could, and walking according to the light he saw till the 
Lord revealed further unto him.' Shrewd Englishman as 
he was, with his Bible in his hand and his eyes open, it is 
scarcely wonderful that he began to come to conclusions 
not favourable to the cruel and intolerant system pursued 
so relentlessly by Archbishop Whitgift and those who acted 
with him. ' In the end, by the tyranny of the bishops 
against godly preachers and people, in silencing the one 
and persecuting the other, he and many more in those 
times began to look further into things.' The further he 
looked the less he liked what he saw, and in the event he 
and they who saw with him ' shook off this yoke of anti- 
christian bondage, and as the Lord's free people joined 
themselves,' as we have seen, ' by a covenant of the Lord 



94 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

into a church estate.' * After they were joined together 
in communion he was a special stay and help unto them.' 
And when again still later the one church at Gainsborough 
became two, that at Scrooby found shelter beneath his 
roof, and so, as one of the ironies of history, the house 
where Archbishops of York had found a home for centuries, 
where Wolsey had lodged, and from which Bishop Bonner 
had dated his letters, became for the Separatist church the 
house of God and the gate of heaven. 

Here the good and venerable man Richard Clyfton 
became their pastor by free choice of the people, and 
joined with him as teacher was another man of the strength 
and nobleness of whose Christian character, and the 
breadth and enlightenment of whose mind, two continents 
were to hear more and more as the centuries passed on. 
This was John Robinson, a man whose name is fragrant 
and memorable in Free Church story. Before he came to 
Scrooby he had been a preacher of Christ's Gospel in the 
county of Norfolk, and there had won men's hearts to 
himself as well as to the truth. Henry Ainsworth, who 
knew him well, tells us that 'certain citizens of Norwich 
were excommunicated for resorting unto and praying with 
Mr. Robinson, a man utterly reverenced of all the city for 
the grace of God in him.' None of his contemporaries 
have given us a connected story of this good man's life. 
Joseph Hall, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, says that 
* Lincolnshire was his county,' a statement borne out by 
the following entry in the register of Corpus Christi 
College, Cambridge : 'John Robinson. F. Lincsh. admitted 
1592. Fell. 1598.' As to where in Lincolnshire his birth- 
place was, still remains uncertain. Gainsborough claims 
him, and there is this much to be said for that claim, that 
among the benefactors who have left money to the town 
may be found the names of Nathaniel Robinson and John 
Robinson. This, however, in the case of a name so 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 95 

common does not count for much in the way of evidence. 
So far as dates are concerned, John Robinson, D.D., Arch- 
deacon of Lincoln and Precentor of Lincohi Cathedral, 
may very well have been his father. He was of Pembroke 
College, Cambridge. In Bishop Kennett's Collections it is 
recorded that May 31, 1574, 'he was installed Archdeacon 
of Bedford, in the place, as it seems, of William Rodd, and 
about 1576 he succeeded John Aylmer in the Archdeaconry 
of Lincoln, of which church he was about that time made 
chauntor. Obiit 1597.'^ He would seem to have been 
made precentor before he became archdeacon, for in the 
Lincoln register there is the following entry : ' Collated to 
the Precentory, Aug. 3, 1572, John Robinson, M.A.' If 
there is anything in this conjecture, John Robinson of 
Scrooby and Leyden was born in the precentory at Lincoln 
in 1575, some three years after his father became pre- 
centor. A mere youth of seventeeen he entered the 
University when Cambridge was keenly alive to the 
religious movements of the time. That eminent Puritan 
William Perkins was public catechist of Robinson's own 
college, where it was his duty to read a lecture every 
Thursday during term time on some useful subject of 
divinity. He was also afternoon lecturer at St. Andrew's 
Church, where he attracted great numbers of Cambridge 
men by his earnest spirit-stirring addresses ; and as Robin- 
son states that his ' personal conversion ' was brought 
about in the Church of England, it is probable that it was 
under this man's influence, all the more probable, inasmuch 
as in later years Robinson published a catechism as an 
Appendix to Mr. Perkins" Six Principles of the Christian 
Religion. 

On leaving college Robinson began life as a Christian 
minister somewhere in the county of Norfolk, but from the 
first seems to have been troubled with scruples about the 
^ Lansdowne MSS. 982. Kennetfs Collections^ Vol. xlviii., 24. 



96 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

vestments and ceremonies insisted upon in the Church, 
Long and anxious were his searchings of heart as to con- 
formity. He was held back, he tells us, for a long time 
by the example of many who did conform, 'blushing in 
myself to have a thought of pressing one hairbreadth 
before them in this thing, behind whom I knew myself to 
come so many miles in all other things ; yea, and even of 
late times, when I had entered into a more serious con- 
sideration of these things, and, according to the measure of 
grace received, searched the Scriptures whether they were 
so or no . . . had not the truth been in my heart as a 
burning fire shut up in my bones, Jer, xx. 9. I had never 
broken those bonds of flesh and blood wherein I was so 
straitly tied, but had suffered the light of God to have been 
put out in mine own unthankful heart by other men's dark- 
ness.'^ Scruples leading to suspension of clerical functions 
and suspension to separation, Robinson became pastor of 
a Congregational church in the city of Norwich. This 
must have been subsequent to 1600, for in that year the 
pastor of this church was a Mr. Hunt, as we learn from 
an incidental reference in George Johnson's Accotmt of the 
Troubles at Amsterdam. As both Robinson and many in 
his Norwich congregation were harassed by fines and im- 
prisonment, he eventually found it necessary to seek 
asylum and service elsewhere. This accounts for his 
appearance in the north as the colleague of Richard 
Clyfton in the church at Scrooby. Though he had left 
Norwich and the people of his charge in that city, he often 
turned back to them with affectionate regard. In a preface 
To my Christian Friends in Norwich and thereabouts , 
penned a dozen years after he had left them, he says that 
' that loving and thankful remembrance in which I always 
have you, my Christian friends, provoketh me as continu- 
ally to commend unto God your welfare.' 
1 Works, II., 52. 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 97 

It would seem from Bradford's narrative that Robinson 
did not return into Lincolnshire till after the separation of 
the Scrooby brethren from the Gainsborough Church, and 
their being independently constituted. After speaking of 
the separation and referring tcr the newly organised com- 
munity at Scrooby, he says, ' In this other church, which 
must be the subject of our discourse, besides other worthy 
men was Mr. Richard Clifton, a grave and reverend 
preacher . . . and also that famous and worthy man 
Mr. John Robinson, who after\vards was their pastor for 
many years, till the Lord took him away by death.' 
Though ' they ordinarily met at William Brewster's 
house, on the Lord's day (which was a manor of the 
bishops), and with great love he entertained them when 
they came,' the stress of persecution sometimes compelled 
them to move elsewhere to avoid observation and arrest. 
Bradford says that * they kept their meetings every Sabbath 
in one place or other, exercising the worship of God among 
themselves.' The manhood of these men was wrought to 
truest temper in the fire of the times. 'They could not 
long continue in any peaceable condition, but were hunted 
and persecuted on every side. Some were taken and clapt 
up in prison, others had their houses beset and watched 
night and day, and hardly escaped their hands ; and the 
most were fain to fly and leave their houses and habitations 
and the means of their livelihood.' These quietly suggestive 
words of William Bradford are fully borne out and sus- 
tained by the records of the Ecclesiastical Court at York, 
in which we come upon the following entries : ' Office 
against Gervase Nevyle of Scrowbie, dio : Ebon' It is 
stated that the said Gervase was one of the sect of Bar- 
rowists, or Brownists, holding and maintaining erroneous 
opinions and doctrines, and for his schismatical obstinacy 
an attachment was awarded to William Blanchard, mes- 
senger, to apprehend him. On his appearance he refused 

H 



98 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

to take oath and make answer, or to recognise the authority 
of the archbishop ; he, therefore, ' as a very dangerous 
schismatical Separatist, Brownist, and irreligious subject,' 
was delivered by strait warrant ' to the hands, ward, and 
safe custody of the Keeper of His Majesty's Castle of 
York ; not permitting him to have any liberty or con- 
ference with any without special license.' 

' Gervase Nevile, of York Castle, Brownist or Separatist. 
He appeared and made answer March 22, 1607-8.' 

On September 15, 1607, an attachment was awarded to 
William Blanchard 'to apprehend Richard Jackson and 
William Brewster, of Scrooby, gentlemen, for Brownism, 
but he certifieth that he cannot find them, nor understand 
where they are.' W^e shall see reason hereafter for sup- 
posing that if William Blanchard had gone to Boston he 
would have found them safely locked up in the dungeons 
under the Guildhall. Again, on the first of the following 
December, after Jackson and Brewster had been liberated 
at the autumn Assize, we find the law once more set in 
motion against them at York. 

'December i, 1607. Office against Richard Jackson, of 
Scrooby, for his disobedience in matters of religion. A 
process was served upon him by the pursuivant, and he 
gives his word to appear, and is find £2.0^ and a warrant 
sent out for his apprehension.' 

'December i, 1607. William Brewster, of Scrooby, 
gentleman. Information is given that he is a Brownist, 
and disobedient in matters of religion.' 

In the spring of 1608 the following return was made to 
the Exchequer by the Archbishop of York : 

' Richard Jackson, William Brewster, and Robert Roches- 
ter, of Scrooby in the county of Nottingham, Brownists or 
Separatists ; for a fine or amercement of ^20 apiece, set 
and imposed upon every one of them by Robert Abbot 
and Robert Snowdon, Doctors of Divinity, and Matthew 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 99 

Dodworth, Bachelor of Law, commissioners for causes 
ecclesiastical within the province of York, for not appearing 
before them upon lawful summons at the collegiate church 
of Southwell, 22nd day of April.' 

Thus remorselessly hunted down by the legal represen- 
tatives of Christ's Gospel of love, and seeing how little 
hope there was of peaceable living in their own land, the 
brethren at last, by joint consent, resolved to cross the 
sea to Holland, where they heard there was freedom of 
religion for all men. Others had preceded them. The 
persecuted brethren in London and their former neighbours 
and fellow-worshippers at Gainsborough had already found 
peaceable settlement at Amsterdam, and the number of 
exiles for conscience' sake was continually being increased 
by arrivals from most of the counties of England. In 
the autumn of 1607 they therefore resolved to go over into 
the Low Countries as best they could. Bradford tells us 
that they felt the decision to be fateful and momentous. 
It was much, and thought marvellous by many that they 
should leave their native soil and country, their lands and 
livings, and all their friends and familiar acquaintances, to 
go into a country they only knew by hearsay, where they 
would have to learn a new language and get their living 
they knew not how, and that, too, in a land too often deso- 
lated by the miseries of war ; this was by many thought an 
adventure almost desperate, a case intolerable, and a misery 
worse than death. The necessity was all the harder, inas- 
much as they had only been accustomed to a plain country 
life and the innocent occupation of husbandry, and were 
entirely unacquainted with such trade and traffic as that by 
which the land to which they were going did mainly subsist. 
But though these things did trouble them they did not 
dismay them, for their desires were set on the ways of God 
and the enjoyment of His ordinances, they therefore rested 
on His providence and knew whom they had believed, 

H 2 



loo PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Their altars they forego, their homes they quit, 
Fields which they love, and paths they daily trod, 
And cast the future upon Providence, 
As men the dictate of whose inward sense 
Outweighs the world. 

But here was the perplexity of their position. It was as 
unlawful to flee from their native land as to remain in 
it without conforming. Emigration without license was 
prohibited by an ancient statute of 13 Richard II. Ports 
and havens would therefore be closed against them, and if 
they got away at all it would have to be by stealth, by 
secret means of conveyance, by bribing the captains of 
vessels, and by paying exorbitant rates of passage. They 
made many attempts to get away in separate parties, and 
were as often betrayed, and both they and their goods 
intercepted and surprised. But there were two occasions 
of more memorable sort which Bradford never forgot. 

The first of these was in the autumn of 1607, probably 
about the month of September, for, as we have seen, on the 
15th of that month, William Blanchard certified to the 
Ecclesiastical Court at York that he cannot find Richard 
Jackson or William Brewster, of Scrooby, nor understand 
where they are. On the 30th of the same month also, the 
first payment was made to Brewster's successor as post- 
master of Scrooby. Besides Brewster, his neighbour Thomas 
Helwisse was one of the foremost promoters of the move- 
ment. ' He above all, either guides or others, furthered 
this passage into strange countries ; if any brought oars, 
he brought sails.' ^ On July 26 his wife Joan was brought 
from York Castle to appear before the Ecclesiastical Court, 
and sent back thither, along with John Drewe and Thomas 
Jessop, for refusing to take an oath according to law. 
Persecution thus coming close home to his own door made 
him the more anxious to find asylum in a land where 
Blanchard's warrants and pursuivants had no power to 
^ Robinson's Works, III., 159. 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. loi 

run. On the occasion referred to these voyagers in search 
of freedom resolved to move as a body, and not in detached 
companies, and to make Boston, on the Lincohishire coast, 
their point of departure. They therefore hired a vessel 
wholly to themselves, making agreement with the captain 
to be ready at a certain day to take them and their 
goods at a convenient place where they would meet him. 
Meantime the deceitful scoundrel had privately arranged 
their betrayal, and no sooner had they stepped on board 
than the officers and searchers were at hand to arrest them. 
Put back into open boats, the minions of the law ' rifled 
and ransacked them, searching them to their shirts for 
money, yea, even the women further than became modesty, 
and then carried them back into the town, and made them 
a spectacle and wonder to the multitude who came 
flocking on all sides to behold them. Being thus first by 
the catchpole^ officers rifled and stripped of their money, 
books, and much other goods, they were presented to 
the magistrates, and messengers were sent to inform the 
Lords of the Council of them ; and so they were committed 
to ward.' 

Boston, in which these unfortunate prisoners found them- 
selves after their arrest, one of the most curious old towns 
in England, had long been declining from the good old 
days when in the reign of Edward III. it sent seventeen 
ships and three hundred and sixty men for the invasion of 
Brittany. Its ancient buildings : the quaint old house in 
Wormgate, the old building in Spain Lane, the Grammar 
School, the Hussey Tower, the Guildhall in South Street, 
and most of all the great Church of St. Botolph, with its 
magnificent tower, seen as a landmark far off" at sea, and 
known all the world over as Boston Stump ; these all 

^ Catchpole, from Central Old French chacepol ; Med. Latin, 
chassipulliis (Du Gauge), lit. chasefowl, one who hunts or chases 
fowls ; later, a petty officer of justice. 



I02 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

bespeak the antiquity and former importance of this eastern 
port on the Lincolnshire coast. It was in the old court- 
room on the first floor of the Guildhall that William 
Brewster and his companions were presented to the magis- 
trates, and it was to the old cells, still to be seen on the 
ground floor, they were remitted back ' till order came from 
the Council Table.' These cells had been in use at that 
time for about sixty years, for 'in 1552 it was ordered that 
the kitchen under the town hall and the chambers over 
them should be prepared for a prison and a dwelling-house 
for one of the sergeants.' ^ There must have been more 
cells formerly, but there are now only two of these grue- 
some chambers remaining, and these, with the increasing 
growth of humane feeling, have ceased to be used. They 
are entered by a high step rising some thirty inches, are 
some six feet broad by seven feet long, and in lieu of doors 
are made secure by a five-barred, whitewashed iron gate. 
A quaint winding stair to the right of the cells, terminating 
at a trap-door in the old court-room, was the way by which 
prisoners ascended to the Palace of Justice till the new 
sessions house was built in 1843. In this chamber, with its 
wagon roof, its arch beams, and its wainscoted walls, and 
with the Boston coat-of-arms and the list of Boston mayors 
since the charter of 1545 displayed to view, the would-be 
exiles were brought up, charged with the high crime and 
misdemeanour of trying to escape from their native 
land. 

The magistrates were not unfavourable to them, for Puri- 
tanism was too rife in Boston itself for them to think ill of 
those who went that way. When, a quarter of a century 
later, nine hundred Puritan colonists sailed for Massachu- 
setts with John Winthrop, many of the leading townsmen 
of Boston were among the number : Richard Bellingham, 
recorder of the town from 1625 to 1633, Atherton Hough, 
' Thompson's History of Boston, p. 235. 




THE GUILDHALL, BOSTON. 

1. Cells in which the Pilgrims were confined. 

2. Passage and stairs leading to cells. 

3. Guildhall, front view. 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 105 

mayor of the borough in 1628, and Thomas Leverett, an 
alderman ; Thomas Dudley, Richard Bellingham, and 
John Leverett were afterwards governors of Massachusetts, 
and William Coddington, father and governor of Rhode 
Island ; while John Cotton, the Puritan preacher of 
Boston Church for twenty years, became one of the 
leading religious forces of New England life. It was 
because this Lincolnshire town sent so large a contingent 
of Puritan townsmen to America between 1620 and 
1630 that at a Court of Assistants held at Charlestown, 
September 7, 1630, it was 'ordered that Trimountain shall 
be called Boston.' Thus from the Eastern Lincolnshire 
town in which Brewster's company were prisoners in 1607, 
came the name of the greater Boston of the Far West.^ 

The seeds of all this movement were therefore in the town 
at the time these prisoners were there. This was probably 
why that, as Bradford tells us, ' the magistrates used them 
courteously and showed them what favour, they could, 
though they could not deliver them till order came from the 
Council Table.' What was done in the matter by the Lords 
of the Council we do not know. Unfortunately the Privy 
Council Register for that year happened to be one of the 
volumes carried over to Whitehall for reference, and con- 
sumed in the fire which wrought such havoc in the palace 
in 161 8. Nor are there any local references in the town 
records of Boston itself ; again unfortunately the leaves for 
that year, happening to come at the beginning of a volume, 
are missing. After detaining them for a month, and 
possibly receiving instructions to that effect from the Privy 
Council, the magistrates dismissed the main body of the 
prisoners, sending them back to their homes at Scrooby 
or elsewhere, and keeping seven of the leaders still in 
prison. These, after a further period of detention, they 
bound over to appear at the Assizes. One of these seven, 
^ Young's Chronicles^ Massachusetts, pp. 48, 49. 



io6 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Bradford tells us, was William Brewster, who ' was chief of 
those that were taken at Boston, and suffered the greatest 
loss.' 

What happened at the Assizes there are no records to 
show, but the failure of this attempt in the autumn of 
1608 did not prevent the making of other endeavours to 
get away in the course of the following spring. This time 
they resolved to try the port of Hull as the point of 
departure, and meeting with a Dutchman who had a ship 
of his own, belonging to Zealand, they made a bargain 
with him to carry them over, hoping to find him more 
reliable than they had found their own countryman on the 
former occasion. He assured them there was no fear of 
him, and that all would go well. The agreement was that 
he was to take them on board at a lonely point on the 
coast between Grimsby and Hull, where was a large 
common, a good way distant from any town. The women 
and children, with what goods they were taking with them, 
went by boat by way of Gainsborough and the Trent, 
while the men travelled across country, a journey of some 
forty miles from Scrooby. It so happened that both 
parties arrived at the place appointed before the ship 
appeared, and had to wait. Meantime, the sea being 
rough and the women suffering, they prevailed upon the 
men in charge of the boat to run it into a creek, where it 
might lie aground at low water. So that next morning, 
when the Dutchman came with his ship, they were fast, 
and could not stir till high water, which would not be till 
about noon. The captain therefore thought the best thing 
to do under the circumstances was to take the men into 
the ship, whom he saw ready, walking to and fro on the 
shore. He had already brought one boat-full on board, 
and was starting for a second, when, to his dismay, he saw 
in the distance, in full pursuit, ' a great company, both 
horse and foot, with bills and guns and other weapons ; 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 107 

for the country was raised to take them.' The Dutchman, 
feeh'ng that his first duty was to take care of himself, 
* swore his country's oath — sacrajnetite' and having the 
wind fair, weighed anchor, hoisted sail, and away. Thus 
that first boat-load received on board found themselves in 
evil case indeed. True, they had escaped the soldiers sent 
in pursuit, but they had nothing with them but the clothes 
upon their backs ; their wives and children, their money 
and their goods, were all in the boat stuck fast in the 
creek, and therefore at the mercy of men who had no 
mercy for them. The tears, we are told, came to their 
eyes, and they wished themselves back on shore again, 
that they might share the fortunes of those they were 
leaving behind. To make their evil case worse, no sooner 
were they out upon the North Sea than a terrific storm 
swept down upon them, driving them out of their course, 
till they found themselves not far from the coast of 
Norway. Fourteen long days they were tossed hither and 
thither, during seven of the fourteen seeing neither sun, nor 
moon, nor stars. The sailors themselves abandoned all 
hope, and once even sent up shrieks and cries, thinking 
their ship to be foundering. They did, however, reach land 
at last, the captain and crew being welcomed ashore by 
eager friends, who at one time never expected to see them 
again. 

Scarcely less pitiful was the plight of those who had 
been left behind on the English coast. Some of the men 
tarried with the women and children at the boat, for their 
assistance, the rest made good their escape before the 
troops arrived. As we may well suppose, the women were 
broken-hearted ; some of them weeping and crying for 
their husbands carried away in the Dutchman's ship ; 
others distracted as to what would become of themselves 
and their little ones ; and yet others again, looking with 
tearful eyes into the faces of helpless children, who were 



io8 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

clinging about them, crying for fear and quaking with 
cold. 

The arresting party, coming with bills and guns and 
other weapons, soon found this defenceless company 
entirely at their mercy. But then came the question, 
what were they to do with weeping women and children, 
now they were in their power? Hurrying them from one 
place to another, and from one justice to another, they 
were at length almost as weary of the enterprise as the 
prisoners themselves. For no magistrate was eager to 
incur the public odium of sending women to prison for no 
other crime than that of wanting to go with their husbands, 
and they could not be sent back to their homes, for homes 
they had none to go to, having either sold or otherwise 
disposed of their houses and livings. Their very necessity 
was the defence of these hapless prisoners, and at last 
those who had seized them were only too glad to be rid of 
them. What became of them in the interval between 
their arrest and their final departure we are not told. 
Probably they took divers ways, and were received to 
various homes by kind-hearted country-folk. The poor are 
often wonderfully kind to each other in times of trouble. 
They would not inquire too curiously into the nature of 
the offence committed against the laws of the realm, and 
they could not be made to see that the claims of ecclesias- 
tical uniformity are paramount to the claims of humanity. 

The later and detailed story of the wanderings and 
travels of these exiles, both by land and sea, has 
not been told. We only know that they rallied 
together somewhere, that John Robinson and William 
Brewster, and other principal members, including, of 
course, the venerable pastor, Richard Clyfton, ' were of 
the last, and stayed to help the weakest over before them,' 
that, ' notwithstanding all these storms of opposition they 
all got over at length, some at one time and some at 



BEGINNINGS OF CHURCH LIFE. 109 

another, some in one place and some in another,' and that 
on a happier shore they ' met together again according to 
their desires with no small rejoicing.' 

After all there is a soul of good in things evil. The 
historian of this simple seventeenth-century epic has left 
it on record that not merely in after generations, but even 
then, the sufferings of these resolute people were fruitful of 
good. Through their so-public troubles in so many 
eminent places their cause became famous. Men began 
to inquire into the nature of the principles for which they 
were willing to suffer so much. Their very enemies 
dragged them into fame, and 'their godly carriage and 
Christian behaviour was such as left a deep impression on 
the minds of many.' It was the old story repeated of the 
blood of the martyrs becoming the seed of the Church. 
' Though some few shrank at these first conflicts and sharp 
beginnings (as it was no marvel), yet many more came on 
with fresh courage, and greatly animated others.' Thus 
ever, the generations one after another pass on the torch 
of truth, win for themselves and their children the realm 
of a larger, nobler freedom, and prove by victorious 
suffering how 

Unbounded is the might 

Of martyrdom, and fortitude and right. 



I lo PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND. 



IV. 

■ THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 

Through storms o'er land and sea these wanderers in 
search of freedom had reached a resting-place at last. 
They arrived in Holland at a time of pause and expec- 
tancy. An armistice had just been concluded for the 
purpose of negotiating a truce with Spain after a war which 
had lasted for five-and-twenty years. A few months 
before their arrival, and in the midst of the severest winter 
that had been known for many years, Prince Maurice, 
attended by a distinguished retinue, had left the Hague on 
the last day of January to meet the Marquis Spinola, who 
had travelled from Spain with a long train of carriages, 
horses, lackeys, cooks, and secretaries, for the purpose of 
negotiating terms of peace. Meantime armed men were 
still marching and counter-marching, and all the para- 
phernalia of war met the view of the English exiles on 
their arrival. There was the usual diplomacy, involving 
the usual delays, and it was not till April 9, 1609, that the 
States General signed that truce with the Spanish king 
which was to last for twelve years to come. Thus the 
fugitives from Scrooby arrived in Holland just as the Five- 
and-Twenty Years' War had spent itself ; they departed in 
1620, when the Thirty Years' War was bursting into 
flame. 

The city of Amsterdam was the place they made for at 
first, and that for obvious reasons. It was the city which 



THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 113 

had stood for Protestantism, for liberty of speech and 
thought through that long and desperate struggle with 
Spain which had ended in the foundation of the Nether- 
lands Republic in 1579, and in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence on July 26, 1 581. On the fifth of that month 
the knights, nobles, and cities of Holland and Zealand had 
called upon William the Silent to accept entire authority 
as sovereign and chief of the land, directing him 'to 
maintain the exercise only of the Reformed Evangelical 
religion, without, however, permitting that inquiries should 
be made into any man's belief or conscience, or that any 
injury or hindrance should be offered to any man on 
account of his religion.' Thus Amsterdam became the 
asylum of liberty, and as such drew to itself, from many 
lands, those who valued their freedom, whether civil or 
religious. As a consequence, it drew to itself also the 
elements of national prosperity. The men driven from 
their own land by the narrow-minded bigotry of their 
rulers were often the very flower of the nation's life — 
earnest-minded, skilled and thrifty, and they helped to 
enrich the nation which gave them welcome. 

Workers in iron, paper, silk, linen, and lace, the makers 
of brocade, tapestry, and satin, as well as of all coarser 
fabrics, found their way from oppression to this land of 
liberty. Historians tell us that never in the history of 
civilisation had there been a more rapid development 
of human industry than in Holland during these years of 
bloodiest warfare. The towns were filled to overflowing. 
Amsterdam grew in wealth and population. ' It is the 
epoch to which the greatest expansion of municipal archi- 
tecture is traced. Warehouses, palaces, docks, arsenals, 
fortifications, dykes, splendid streets and suburbs, were 
constructed on every side, and still there was not room for 
the constantly increasing population.' ^ 

^ Motley's United Neihet lajids, III,, 25. 

I 



114 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

As far back as 1593 English Separatists had begun to 
come to Amsterdam in search of liberty, and this by the 
advice of one of the martyrs whose memory was dear to 
them. Shortly after the execution of Barrowe and Green- 
wood at Tyburn, John Penry, the Welsh martyr, was led 
forth to the gibbet a mile or two out of London on the 
Old Kent Road. A few days before his death he sent a 
farewell address to his brethren of the Separatist Church 
in London, advising them, since there was no hope of 
religious freedom at home, to prepare themselves to go 
into exile abroad, and to keep together. He is sure they 
will yet find days of peace and rest, if only they will be 
faithful. This stamping and treading of them under feet, 
this subverting of their cause in right and judgment, is 
permitted to the end that they may search and try their 
ways ; but the Lord will yet maintain the cause of their 
souls and redeem their lives. He further touchingly 
beseeches them that wherever they go into exile, they 
would take his poor and desolate widow and his fatherless 
and friendless orphans with them. His advice was taken 
and his request carried out. As many of the secret Church 
as could made their way to Amsterdam. For the present 
at least some could not go. Francis Johnson, the pastor, 
and his brother George, were in prison, the one in the Clink 
and the other in the Fleet ; Settle, another of the members, 
was in the Gatehouse, and Daniel Studley in Newgate. 
It was not till 1597 that these were able to join their 
brethren, but in that year they also made their way to 
Amsterdam, Francis Johnson and Daniel Studley hiring a 
house in the Reguliers-poort in that city.^ They seem 
also to have carried out Penry 's wish about his widow and 

■ ^ A Discourse of some Troubles in the Banished English Church 
at Amsterdam. Printed at Amsterdam, 1603. The only known 
copy of this book is in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge 
[VI., 7, 18]. 



I 



THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 115 

fatherless children, for in the list of marriages recorded as 
taking place among the English in Amsterdam we find 
from the Puiboeken, or city register, that Deliverance Penry, 
aged twenty-one years, from Northamptonshire, was mar- 
ried May 14, 161 1, to Samuel Whitaker, bombazine-worker, 
from Somersetshire, aged twenty-three. 

There were thus two Separatist communities already in 
Amsterdam when the exiles from Scrooby arrived, the one 
from London, of which Francis Johnson was pastor, and 
that from Gainsborough, under the care of John Smyth. 
Francis Johnson was a man of some individuality and force 
of character. The son of a former mayor of Richmond in 
Yorkshire, he was also a graduate and fellow of Christ's 
College, Cambridge. In 1588, when only twenty-six, he 
preached a sermon in the University Church in favour of the 
Presbyterian system, the want of w'hich, he said, accounted 
for the prevailing ignorance and impiety of the time. It 
was a daring thing to do, and for doing it he was committed 
to prison, and refusing to make public recantation was 
expelled the University. He subsequently became the 
minister of the church of the English merchants at Middle- 
burgh in Zealand, and while there, in 1591, he discovered 
that one of Barrowe and Greenwood's prison books was 
being printed by stealth at Dort. The Separatists at that 
time being the objects of his strong aversion, he at once 
communicated with the English ambassador, and received 
authority to intercept the book at the press and see all the 
copies burnt. All w^ere burnt but two, which he saved from 
the fire for himself and a friend. Having burnt the rest, 
he then sat down in his study to read the one he had kept. 
Perhaps it would have been more rational to read first, and 
then, if needful, burn after ; but he reversed the process, and 
that after-reading changed all his after-life. The farther 
he read the more the book laid hold of him. He began 
hating the Separatists and all their v/orks, he ended 

I 2 



1 16 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE IV ENGLAND. 

resolved to join them. Making his way back at once to 
London, he sought out Barrowe and Greenwood, the writers 
of the books in the Fleet prison, entered into earnest 
conference with them, and eventually joined the London 
brotherhood with which they were associated. So deeply 
did he regret his former animosity and the destruction 
of the books he had burnt, that fourteen years later, in 
1605, he had another edition printed at his own expense. 

Chosen pastor of the brotherhood he had joined, he with 
John Greenwood was arrested at the house of Edward 
Boyes, on Ludgate Hill, and committed to prison. He in 
the Clink and his brother George in the Fleet, they 
remained prisoners till the year 1597, when hearing there 
was a project on foot for an expedition to Canada, they 
craved permission to join it. Under date March 25, 1597, 
there is an entry in the Privy Council Register to the 
effect that Abraham Van Hardwick and Stephen Van 
Hardwick, merchant strangers, and Charles Leigh, mer- 
chant of London, have undertaken a voyage of fishing and 
discovery unto the Bay of Canada, and to plant themselves 
in the Island of Rainea or thereabouts. It is further said : 
' Forasmuch as they have made humble suit unto Her 
Majesty to transport out of this realm divers artificers and 
other persons that are noted to be sectaries, whose minds 
are continually in an ecclesiastical ferment, whereof four 
shall at this present sail thither in those ships that go this 
present voyage. You will therefore understand that Her 
Majesty is pleased they shall carry with them the aforesaid 
persons.' 

The four thus chosen to go to plant themselves on the 
Island of Rainea to be the first Pilgrim Fathers before the 
Pilgrim Fathers' time, were Francis and George Johnson, 
Daniel Studley, an elder of the Church, and John Clark. 
This first voyage of the Separatists across the Atlantic 
ended in failure. They met with rough weather and 



THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 117 

disastrous fortune. Off the coast of Newfoundland one of 
the vessels went on to the rocks ; they were captured by 
Frenchmen and pillaged, and finally, after a variety of 
adventures, had to make their way back to Southampton 
as best they could. One good thing, however, came out of 
this ill-fated enterprise. They were now free of the Fleet 
after five years' imprisonment, and were therefore able to 
join the rest of their brethren in Amsterdam, where Francis 
Johnson was again chosen pastor, with Daniel Studley, 
Stanshall Mercer, George Knyveton, and Christopher 
Bowman as elders. This story of shipwreck and disaster 
at sea the brethren from Scrooby may have heard from the 
shipwrecked men's own lips, and remembered it with mis- 
giving hearts in after days, when thinking of crossing the 
Atlantic themselves. 

In the Church of Amsterdam there was associated with 
Francis Johnson as teacher, Henry Ainsworth, a man 
altogether too memorable to be passed without notice. 
Bradford says that he originally came ' out of Ireland with 
other poor,' was ' a single young man and very studious ' ; 
and Roger Williams tells us that he lived on ninepence a 
week, and subsisted on boiled roots. We may assume that 
as time went on his finances improved, for in the Puiboeken 
we read that on March 29, 1607, Henry Ainsworth, who is 
described as a teacher, thirty-six years of age, and residing 
on the Singel by the Heipoort, was married to Margaret 
Haley, of Ipswich. He was, says Bradford, a man of a 
thousand, and in the opinion of members of the University 
' had not his better for the Hebrew tongue in the University, 
nor scarce in Europe.' His Annotations on the Pentateuch, 
the Psalms, and other portions of Scripture, were long held 
in esteem for the healthy spirit of exegesis by which they 
were pervaded, and as setting aside the allegorising system 
of interpretation then too prevalent. 

This first Church of Amsterdam of which, as we have 



1 1 8 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND. 

seen, Francis Johnson was pastor and Henry Ainsworth 
teacher, was composed of exiles who had come from ahnost 
all parts of England in search of freedom of worship. 
Dr. Hoop Schefifer, of the Mennonite College in that city, 
has given from the Puiboeken, to which reference has 
already been made, a list of one hundred and eighteen 
marriages celebrated among these English exiles between 
1598 and 1 517. The place of their previous domicile is 
always given, from which we find that they came from no 
fewer than twenty-nine English counties, and in addition 
from the Welsh county of Caermarthen. Northumberland 
and Yorkshire are represented as well as Sussex and Kent, 
Cornwall and Devon along with Norfolk and Suftblk ; the 
North and South Midlands as well as Lancashire and 
Lincoln.^ The Church seems to have been at the height 
of its prosperity about the time the brethren from Scrooby 
arrived in the city. 

Pleasant were the reminiscences which William Bradford 
called up in after days of the Christian fellowship en- 
joyed in this place of refuge, and quaint the pictures 
of church life as it existed among them. 'Truly,' says 
he, * there were many worthy men ; and if you had seen 
them in their beauty and order, as we have done, you 
would have been much affected thereby. At Amsterdam, 
before their division and breach, they were about three 
hundred communicants, and they had for their pastor and 
teacher those two eminent men before named, and in our 
time four grave men for ruling elders, three able and godly 
men for deacons, and one ancient widow for a deaconess, 
who did them service many years, though she was sixty 
years of age when she was chosen.' Quaint and old- 
worldlike is the picture of this venerable lady he goes on 
to paint for us : ' She honoured her place, and was an orna- 

^ Proceedings of the Koninklijke Akademie van Wctenschappen, 
1880-1. Bijlage L, pp. 384-392. 



THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 119 

ment to the congregation. She usually sat in a convenient 
place in the congregation, with a little birchen rod in her 
hand, and kept little children in great awe from disturbing 
the congregation. She did frequently visit the sick and 
weak, especially women, and as there was need, called out 
maids and young women to watch and do them other 
helps as their necessity did require ; and if they were poor 
she would gather relief for them of those that were able, or 
acquaint the deacons ; and she was obeyed as a mother in 
Israel and an officer of Christ' ^ Many churches have 
been, and all churches would be, the better for having such 
saintly, Christ-like souls as this ' Mother in Israel and 
officer of Christ,' whose memory William Bradford has 
preserved for us. 

It would seem that the Church which went out from 
Gainsborough about 1606 retained under its pastor, John 
Smyth, an existence separate from that under Francis 
Johnson. This may have been necessitated by the lack 
of a building sufficiently large to accommodate the two 
communities together, or it may have been occasioned 
by the fact that 'the anciente church' under Johnson's 
care was more presbyterian than popular in its govern- 
ment. The later comers, again, from Scrooby, also wor- 
shipped separately, having their own pastor, Richard 
Clyfton, and their own teacher, John Robinson. Con- 
siderations of space and convenience may have determined 
this partly, but there were also other considerations. 
Smyth's views underwent a change in the matter of 
doctrine first and of baptism afterwards, and in Johnson's 
church some internal matters of discipline had altered his 
views of church government generally. He now came to 
the conclusion that it ought to be vested in elders chosen 
by the congregation, while Robinson and Ainsworth were 
of opinion that it should be vested in the Church of which 
^ Bradford's Dialogues, p. 455. 



120 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

the ciders were a part. They contended that bishops or 
elders were ordinary govenors, and not lords over God's 
heritage, as if ' the Church could not be without them.' It 
is given to ministers, they said, to feed, guide, and govern 
the Church, but not tJiemselves to be the Church, and to 
challenge the power of the same in things pertaining to the 
kingdom of God. They pointed out that it was through 
yielding in this matter that a priestly hierarchy rose to 
power in the Church, with all the evils ensuing, which, 
had the people made a stand against at the outset, and 
practised the Gospel in the order set by Christ, would 
never have prevailed. They could not yield on this point. 
' If,' said they, ' we should let the true practice of the 
Gospel go, posterity after us, being brought into bondage, 
might justly blame and curse us that we did not stand 
for the rights of the people in that which we acknowledge 
to be their due.' 

Seeing storms gathering, after being about a year at 
Amsterdam, Robinson and the brethren from Scrooby 
resolved peaceably to withdraw and start church life 
afresh at Leyden, though, as Bradford says, ' they well knew 
that it would be much to the prejudice of their outward 
estate both in the present and in the future, as indeed it 
proved to be.' Having thus resolved, Robinson and his 
people made formal application to the authorities of 
Leyden for leave to come and reside in that city. This 
application is recorded in the GerecJits dags boeken, or 
Court Register of the City, preserved among the archives 
in the Stad-Jiitis, and was first printed in 1848 by Professor 
Kist.^ It runs as follows: — 

' To the Honorable the Burgomasters and Court of 
the city of Leyden : With due submission and respect, 
Jan Robartlise, minister of the Divine Word, and some 
of the members of the Christian Reformed Religion, born 

' Nederlandsch Archie/ voor Kerkelijkc Gescliiedenis, \q\. viii. 



THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 121 

in the kingdom of Great Britain, to the number of one 
hundred persons, or thereabouts, men and women, repre- 
sent that they are desirous of coming to Hve in this city, 
by the first of May next, and to have the freedom thereof 
in carrying on their trades, without being a burden in the 
least to any one. They therefore address themselves to 
your Honors, humbly praying that your Honors will be 
pleased to grant them free consent to betake themselves as 
aforesaid.' 

The application itself bears neither date nor signature, 
but the reply of the authorities has the date upon the 
margin, and is as follows : — 

'The Court, in making a disposition of this present 
memorial, declare that they refuse no honest persons free 
ingress to come and have their residence in this city, 
provided that such persons behave themselves, and submit 
to the laws and ordinances ; and therefore the coming of 
the memorialists will be agreeable and welcome. 

' Thus done in their session at the Council House, 
12 February, 1609. 

'Signed, I. VAN HOUT.' 

Leyden, now reduced to one-half of its former population, 
was then a city of 100,000 inhabitants, and had to a large 
extent recovered itself from the disastrous effects of the 
memorable siege of thirty years before. Bradford speaks 
lovingly of their new home as a fair and beautiful city and 
of a sweet situation. And, indeed, with the return of 
peace and the development of commerce there had come 
back something also of the city's former splendour. For 
long the residence of the Counts of Holland, it was and still 
remains the seat of the Rynland Syndicate for the control 
of the waters in a region specially exposed to their ravages. 
The great cathedral church of St. Peter, a vast basilica 
with five naves, dating from the early part of the fourteenth 
century, had fortunately escaped the destruction which 
had overtaken so many of the other buildings during the 
war. The Hotel de Ville, many times burnt with fire, 



122 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

had been rebuilt as we see it now, after the designs of the 
great Flemish architect, Lievin de Key. Great municipal 
and military services and important commercial corpora- 
tions had taken possession of such religious edifices, 
cloisters, and chapels as had been left without use by 
the Reformation ; the Drapers' Company, for example, the 
most influential of the local industries, held their gatherings 
in the chapel of the Hospital of St. Jacques. On all sides 
were signs of growing wealth and prosperity. In the main 
streets and upon the quays of the Breedstraat, the Oude 
Singel, the Rapenburgh and the Langeburg, rose the 
habitations of the burghers, some of them presenting 
examples of the ancient national style, and others inspired 
by the art of the Renaissance then rising into favour. 

But while the Leydenese were proud of the architectural 
adornments of their city, they were especially proud of it 
as a rising seat of learning. William of Orange, wishing to 
recognise the splendid services rendered to the Common- 
wealth by the citizens during the great siege, granted the 
charter of foundation for the University of Leyden. 
Created by a decree of February 9, 1575, and largely 
endowed, it was first established in the ancient cloister of 
St. Barbe, from which it was transferred to the Chapel of 
the Jacobins, where it still remains. It rapidly rose to 
fame, and gathered to itself some of the most distinguished 
scholars of the time Though at the period with which we 
are dealing it had been in existence little more than a 
quarter of a century, students were drawn to it from 
all parts of Europe, attracted by the fame of such 
men as Francis Junius, who had been its professor of 
theology ; Justus Lipsius, who held its chair of history ; 
the younger Scaliger, Vossius, Saumaise, Daniel Heinsius, 
and Philip Marnix St. Aldegonde, famous both as scholar 
and diplomatist. The eminent controversialists, Gomar 
and Arminius, were joint professors of theology at the time 



I 



THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 123 

the exiles came to Leyden, though the latter died on 
October 19, 1609, and therefore shortly after their arrival. 
And if one may for a moment leave the University and 
stray from great names already achieved in literature 
to a name yet unknown, but destined to become great in 
art, it may not be uninteresting to note that, during John 
Robinson's life at Leyden, young Rembrandt was growing 
up from childhood to early manhood in his father's house 
on the ramparts at the western extremity of the city. 
Here, at the point where the branches of the Rhine reunite, 
Rembrandt's father, Harmen Gerritsz, owned the greater 
part of a mill on the Pelican Quay, near the White Gate ; 
and there is nothing improbable in the thought that 
Robinson in his walks may have seen the bright-faced lad 
at his games, and in later years passed him as a student on 
the University stairs. It sets one musing and looking 
wistfully forward, to remember that John Robinson, the 
pastor of a church so profoundly concerned in laying the 
foundations of democracy across the Atlantic, should for 
sixteen years of his life have lived side by side with the 
young artist of whom it has been said that he concentrated 
in himself the life of many generations of Dutch artisans 
and peasants, and felt the full influence of the democratic 
movement which had been going on all over Europe for 
two centuries past. It has been said that if any one wishes 
to know what it was the common people in Holland and 
Germany did actually believe in the 16th century con- 
cerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he must not go to 
the Synod of Dort, or to the writings of Lutheran and 
Calvinistic divines, or even to the biographies of saints, but 
to the works of Rembrandt, in which nothing is more 
manifest than that to him the Gospel of Jesus Christ was 
the Gospel of the poor, his creations being a wonderful 
testimony to the truth that that Gospel corresponds exactly 
to humanity's needs.^ 

1 Richard Heath. 



1 24 riL GRIM FA THERS OF NE IV ENGLAND. 

On their arrival in the city of Leyden, which was to 
be their home for some years to come, the exiles from 
Scrooby seem naturally to have lived very much together, 
a community within a community dwelling among a people 
of strange language. It was not, however, till 161 1 that 
they acquired a place they could call their own. In that 
year John Robinson, in conjunction with William Jepson, 
Henry Wood and Randall Thickins, his brother-in-law, pur- 
chased for 8000 guilders a house and garden in the Klok- 
steeg, which may be anglicized as Bell Lane, where the Pesyns 
Hof now stands. This property stood on the ground nearly 
opposite the belfry built in the rear of St. Peter's Church. 
It was conveyed ' from John de Lalaing to Jan Robinson, 
Minister of God's Word of the English congregation in this 
city,' by a transi)ort brief or deed made on the 5th of May, 
161 1, and is thus described : 'a house and ground with a 
garden situated on the west side thereof, standing and 
being in this city on the south side of the Pieter Kirckhoff 
near the belfry formerly called the Groene poort [Green 
Gate], bounded and having situated on one side eastwardly 
a certain small room which the comparant [the grantor] 
reserves to himself, being over the door of the house hereby 
sold ; next thereto is Willem Simonsz van der Wilde, and 
next to him the residence of the Commanderije ; and on 
the other side westwardly having the widow and heirs of 
Huyck van Alckemade, and next to him the comparant 
himself, and next to him is the Donckere graft [the Dark 
Canal], which is also situated on the west of the aforesaid 
garden, and next to it is the Falide Bagynhoff [the Veiled 
Nuns' Cloister], extending from the street of the Kirckhoff 
aforesaid to the rear of the Falide Bagynhoff.' ^ The 
garden ran back to the extent of 125 feet, and at the end 
of it was the wall enclosing the land on which stood the 
old chapel of the Falide Bagynhoff, the upper story of which 

^ Hon. Henry C. Murph}-, U.S. Minister at the Hague, ///^/. A/ao-. 
1859, iii., p. 330. 



THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 125 

was used as the university library, one of the lower being 
occupied by the English Presbyterian Church, founded in 
the year Robinson came to Leyden, and of which Robert 
Doric was minister till his death in 161 6. 

The Pilgrims probably worshipped in some part of the 
buildings connected with this house of Robinson's during 
their life in Leyden. There is no record of any other place 
of meeting, or anything to indicate that any public building 
was granted to them by the authorities for their use, as was 
the case with the English Presbyterian congregation just 
referred to. Further it appears from Brodhead (i. loi) it 
was the custom of the Dutch government to restrict new 
and unusual sects to worship in private houses, which were 
frequently as spacious as the churches themselves. To 
the same effect Cardinal Bentivoglio in his Relazione di 
Fiandra says, that in the cities of the Netherlands public 
exercises of religion were not permitted to any sect but the 
Calvinists, presumably of the Reformed Churches of the 
Continent. The exercises of all others, he says, 'are 
permitted in private houses, which are in fact as if public, 
the places of preaching being spacious and of sufficient 
size for any assembly.' John Robinson's house was 
apparently of this character, for in after years Edward 
Winslow, speaking of the leave-taking of those who were 
going to New England, says, ' they that stayed at Leyden 
feasted us that were to goe, at our pastor's house, being 
large.' Further, Dr. Dexter, in the course of his loving and 
painstaking researches in Leyden, discovered that in the 
great garden of this house William Jessop built twenty-one 
small tenements, which were probably intended as dwellings 
for the poorer members of the congregation. Upon the 
front of the present modern building facing the cathedral 
there was placed in recent years by consent of the owners 
a marble slab with the inscription : — ' On this spot lived, 
taught, and died, John Robinson. 1611-1625.' 



126 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

His people appear to have found life harder at Leyden 
than at Amsterdam, there being less traffic by sea, and 
therefore less opportunity of obtaining employment. But, 
as Bradford says : ' Being now here pitched, they fell to 
such trades and employments as they best could, valuing 
peace and their spiritual comfort above any other riches 
whatever. And at length they came to raise a competent 
and comfortable living, but with hard and continued 
labour.' Some of them became baize-weavers and serge- 
workers, while others were hat-makers, wool-carders, twine- 
manufacturers, masons and carpenters. In the Church at 
Leyden, as well as in that at Amsterdam, there were 
bombazine-workers, cabinet-makers, wool-combers and 
stocking-weavers, engravers, trunk-makers, goldsmiths, 
bellsmiths and the like. William Bradford, as we find 
from his marriage register in the Puiboeken at Amsterdam, 
was a vastijnwerker, or fustian-worker. The full entry of 
this interesting event in the life of the man who was after- 
ward Governor Bradford is as follows: '1613. Nov. 9. 
William Bradford of Austerfield, fustian-worker, 23 years ; 
living at Leyden, where the banns of marriage were laid ; 
it was declared that he had no elders [i.e., parents] ; and 
Dorothea May, 16 years, of Wisbeach. The attesting 
witness is Henry Mayr.' We may mention, by the way, 
that four years earlier Dorothy May's sister, Jacomyne 
May, also of Wisbeach in Cambridgeshire, was married to 
Jean de I'Ecluse, a book printer from Rouen, who was an 
elder of the ' ancient church,' at Amsterdam, having come 
over from the French Church for ' known evils ' existing 
among them. 

While Bradford and the rest of the exiles were thus 
occupied in humbler callings, William Brewster, as a Cam- 
bridge man, and therefore of scholarly tastes, earned his 
living at first by giving lessons in English to students of 
the University anxious to acquire the language. We are 



THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. \Tj 

told that he drew up rules for them * to learn it by, after 
the Latin manner,' so that * many gentlemen, both Danes 
and Germans, resorted to him, some of them being great 
men's sons,' until * his outward condition was mended, and 
he lived well and plentifully.' By and by he drifted into 
other employment more immediately connected with the 
furtherance of the principles for which he and his brethren 
went into exile. In concert with Thomas Brewer, in the 
city famed for the beautiful productions of the Elzevir 
press, he set up a printing establishment in the Choor-steeg 
{i7i vico Chorale), mainly for the purpose of producing books 
in defence of their church principles, such as were not 
allowed to be printed in England. Other books also of 
a less controversial kind were sent forth by him, some 
of which, as specimens of his work, are preserved in 
Pilgrim Hall, and in the library of the Pilgrim Society at 
Plymouth. 

While thus occupied in their every-day callings, their 
Sabbath services and their church gatherings for fellowship 
were the solace of their pilgrimage. With the beginning 
of their life at Leyden, John Robinson became the sole 
pastor of the community, having William Brewster as his 
principal elder. For Richard Clyfton, their pastor hitherto, 
remained behind at Amsterdam, partly because at his time 
of life he was unwilling to change his abode again, and 
partly also because he had come to sympathize with 
Francis Johnson's views in favour of a less popular form of 
church government. So that henceforth, from 1609 ^'^^ 
his death in 1625, we are to think of John Robinson as the 
pastor, friend, and guide of the Leyden brotherhood. In 
that capacity and to an eminent degree he seems to have 
lived in their confidence and love. Bradford gives an ideal 
picture of the relations existing between them. He says it 
was hard to judge whether he delighted more in having 
such a people, or they in having such a pastor. Besides 



1 2 8 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND. 

his singular ability in Divine things, wherein he excelled, 
he was also wise to give directions in civil affairs, so that 
he was helpful to their outward estates, and was in every 
way a common father to them. The people, on their part, 
also had ever a reverent regard unto him, and had him in 
precious estimation, and though they esteemed him highly 
while he lived and laboured among them, yet much more 
after his death they came to realise how much they had 
lost, to the grief of their hearts and wounding of their 
souls. 

With an unwavering belief this pastor held to the prin- 
ciple that a Christian Church should be composed of 
Christian men, and that, being Christian men, and there- 
lore possessed of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, they 
were, under that illumination, capable of self-government. 
No other power, either civil or ecclesiastical, ought to 
supersede the exercise of the right on which such sacred 
duties were made to depend. Holding such views, Robin- 
son regarded the call of God to service as coming to him 
through the Christian brotherhood. He says : ' I was 
ordained publicly upon the solemn call of the Church in 
which I serve both in respect of the ordainers and the 
ordained.' ^ Even in each separate community he held 
that the officers of a Church are not, by themselves, the 
Church. They may confer and arrange affairs privately in 
their consistory, ' so also (and that specially) publicly and 
in the face of the congregation they execute the same.' 
While there are many things in the settled and well- 
ordered state of the Church which he would willingly leave 
to the administration of the officers thereof, he maintained 
at the same time * that they are or can be rightly and 
orderly done but with the people's privity and consent.' 
Having thus wisely directed self-government, the Church 
under his care enjoyed steady and healthy growth until it 
^ Works, I., 463. 



THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 129 

numbered nearl)' three hundred communicants, besides 
adherents. 

Governor Bradford cherished grateful remembrances 
of those Leyden days, and that true church Hfe. He 
says : ' They continued many years in a comfortable 
condition, enjoying much sweet and delightful society and 
spiritual comfort together in the ways of God. So as they 
grew in knowledge and other gifts and graces of the Spirit 
of God, and lived together in peace and love and holiness, 
many came unto them from divers parts of England, so 
that they grew a great congregation. If at any time 
differences arose, as diftercnces will arise, they were so met 
with and nipt in the head betimes, or otherwise so well 
composed that love, peace, and communion were still con- 
tinued. I know not but it may be spoken to the honour of 
God, and without prejudice to any, that such was the true 
piety, the humble zeal and fervent love of this people 
towards God and His ways, and the single-heartedness and 
sincere affection one towards another, that they came as 
near the primitive pattern of the first Churches as any other 
Church of these later times have done according to their 
rank and quality.' ^ In his later Dialogues ^ he returns to 
these earlier memories : ' For the Church at Leyden they 
were sometimes not much fewer in number [than the Church 
at Amsterdam] nor at all inferior in able men, though they 
had not so many officers as the others ; for they had but 
one ruling elder with their pastor [William Brewster], a 
man well approved and of great integrity ; also they had 
three able men for deacons. And that which was a crown 
unto them, they lived together in love and peace all their 
days without any considerable difference or any disturbance 
that grew thereby, but such as was easily heaied in love ; 
and so they continued until with mutual consent they 

^ History of Plymouth Plantation, pp. 17-19. 
^ Young's Chronicles, p. 456. 

K 



1 30 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGL A ND. 

removed into New England Many worthy and able 

men there were among them who lived and died in obscu- - 
rity in respect of the world, as private Christians, yet were 
they precious in the eyes of the Lord, and also in the eyes 
of such as knew them.' 

Robinson himself bears similar testimony. Their former 
neighbour, Richard Bernard, of Worksop, had published a 
book, just as they were leaving Scrooby in 1608, entitled 
Christian Advertisements and Cmmsels of Peace, in which 
he had spoken of popular self-government in the Church by 
Christian men very much in the style of Mrs. Oliphant 
and other novelists of our time, whereupon in reply John 
Robinson solemnly protests against this ' contemptuous 
upbraiding of God's people with inconstancy, instability, 
pride, contention and the like evils, and specially this 
scurrilous and profane spirit, in which you nickname them 
Symon the Saddler, Tomkin the Tailor, Billy the Bellows- 
maker.' He reminds Bernard that not thus doth God's 
Spirit speak of God's people, and that as to what he had 
said about Christian men being incapable of self-govern- 
ment, it must not be forgotten that the leaders of the 
Church had more often gone wrong than the people ; that 
in the days of Queen Mary, for example, when all went 
back to Popery, many prelates and priests were the ring- 
leaders in the reaction. ' For ourselves,' he adds, speaking 
of his own Church at Leyden, ' I tell you that if ever I saw 
the beauty of Sion and the glory of the Lord filling His 
tabernacle, it hath been in the manifestation of the divers 
graces of God in the Church, in that heavenly harmony and 
comely order wherein by the grace of God we are set and 
walk, wherein if your eyes had but seen the brethren's 
sober and modest carriage one towards another, their 
humble and willing submission unto their guides in the 
Lord, their tender compassion towards the weak, their 
fervent zeal against scandalous offenders and their long- 



THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 131 

suffering towards all, you would, I am persuaded, change 
your mind, and be compelled, like Balaam, to take up your 
parable, and bless where you purposed to curse.' ^ 

This testimony was borne out by others who must be 
regarded as impartial witnesses. For example, Edward 
Winslow, an able and educated young English gentleman 
from Droitwich, being on his travels, happened to come to 
Leyden in 161 7, and was so struck with the Christian life 
of this brotherhood that he cast in his lot with them, and 
not only became a member of the fellowship, but went with 
them afterwards to New England, his name standing third 
among those who signed the compact on board the May- 
flower. Writing a quarter of a century later, he says : ' I 
persuade myself never people upon earth lived more 
lovingly together and parted more sweetly than we the 
Church at Leyden did ; parting not rashly in a distracted 
humour, but upon joint and serious deliberation, often 
seeking the mind of God by fasting and prayer, whose 
gracious presence was not only found with us, but His 
blessing upon us from that time until now.' ^ 

Among other principal men who joined them, as Edward 
Winslow did, on beholding their order, were Thomas Brewer, 
a wealthy Puritan from Kent, John Carver, an early deacon 
of the Church and leader of the first migrating colony, and 
Robert Cushman, who was associated with Carver in 
effecting the migration. Miles Standish, one of the many 
English gentlemen who sought military service in the 
Netherlands, was in friendly relations with the Church at 
Leyden ; he also went with them in the Mayflower and 
became the soldier of the colony ; but whether he was ever 
a member of the Church, or whether, like the rest of his 
family at Duxbury Hall, in Lancashire, he was a Roman 
Catholic, seems not so clear. 

^ Works, II., 223. 

^ Young's Chronicles, p. 380. 

K 2 



132 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Their Dutch neighbours also seem to have had good 
opinion of these Christian people from England planted in 
their midst : ' Though many of them were poor, yet there 
was none so poor but if they were known to be of that 
congregation, the Dutch (either bakers or others) would 
trust them in any reasonable matter when they wanted 
money. Because they had found by experience how care- 
ful they were to keep their word, and saw them so painful 
and diligent in their callings ; yea, they would strive to get 
their custom, and to employ them above others in their 
work for their honesty and diligence.' ^ The Dutch offi- 
cials were of the same mind as the Dutch people in their 
estimate of the strangers. Bradford mentions also that 
' the magistrates of the city, about the time of their coming 
away or a little before, in the public place of justice gave 
this commendable testimony of them in the reproof of the 
Walloons who were of the French in that city, "These 
English," said they, " have lived among us now these 
twelve years, and yet we never had any suit or accusation 
come against any of them ; but your strifes and quarrels 
are continual." ' ^ 

The intellectual eminence of John Robinson, the pastor 
of these people, was also honourably recognised by the 
University authorities, with the consent of the magistrates, 
by his being received as an honorary member of the Univer- 
sity September 5, 161 5. This distinction carried with it 
not only literary privileges, but also certain substantial 
civil advantages. He thus became free from the liabilit\' 
to which ordinary citizens were subject of having soldiers 
billeted upon them in case of siege or other military emer- 
gency, also from the requirement of having to take turn in 
the night-watch, and having to pay contributions to public 
works and fortifications. There v/as also the further privi- 
lege of being allowed to purchase a certain quantity of 
^ Bradford, pp. 19, 20. ^ Ibid. 



THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 133 

wine or beer without payment of duty to city or state. 
The following is a copy of the record on the University 
roll :— 

1615 
Sept. 5° Joannes Robintsonus. Anglus. 

Coss. permissu. Ann. xxxix. 

Stud. Theol. alit Familiam. 

During those Leyden days the controversy between 
Calvinist and Arminian was stirring hot blood on both 
sides. Lectures by Polyander and counter-lectures by 
Episcopius were being delivered in the University itself, 
John Robinson listening and deeply pondering. He was 
even prevailed upon — though after much hesitation — by 
Polyander, Festus Hommius, and other professors, to enter 
the lists himself against Episcopius in public discussion. 
This discussion lasted three days ; and Bradford, who pro- 
bably was present, and perhaps not altogether impartial, 
says that the Lord did so help this pastor of his ' to 
defend the truth and foil his adversary, as he put him to 
an apparent non-plus in this great and public audience. 
This so famous victory procured him much honour and 
respect from those learned men and others who loved the 
truth.' 

The question at issue between Robinson and Episcopius 
was more vital and far-reaching than these quiet words of 
Bradford might lead us to suppose, and we shall not feel 
to the full the pulsations of life in the midst of which the 
exiles were living at Leyden unless we realize what these 
deeper issues were. The controversy of that time between 
the followers of Arminius and of Gomarus, between Remon- 
strant and Contra-Remonstrant, was no mere academical 
question, no merely intellectual tournament. The question 
of predestination and free-will had become more than a 
doctrinal question among theologians. It had widened out 



134 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

into far broader issues, and become the watchword of 
poHtical party and national strife. The Remonstrants 
were not merely the followers of Arminius and Grotius in 
the matter of doctrine ; they were on the side of John of 
Barneveld, and therefore in favour of a National Church, 
controlled, in Erastian fashion, by the magistracy, and in 
favour also of the unpopular truce with Spain, the national 
foe. The Contra- Remonstrants, on the other hand, were 
not merely the followers of Calvin and Gomarus in the 
matter of predestination unto life, politically also they were 
on the side of Prince Maurice, the Stadholder, against 
Barneveld, the advocate, and therefore in favour of a Free 
Church in a Free State, and in favour, also, of still carrying 
on the war with Spain, their ancient and implacable foe. 

Here, indeed, was burning material enough to set many 
cities on fire. This controversy ran through the whole 
community, as did the Arian controversy at Constantinople 
and Alexandria, centuries before. Speaking of the latter, 
Eusebius says that bishop rose against bishop, district 
against district, only to be compared to the Symplegades 
dashed against each other on a stormy day ; and Gregory 
of Nyssa adds to this that every corner, every alley of Con- 
stantinople was full of these discussions — the streets, the 
market-places, the drapers, the money-changers. Scarcely 
less absorbing came to be the question between Remon- 
strant and Contra-Remonstrant during much of the time 
the Scrooby brethren found a home in Leyden. In bur- 
ghers' mansions and peasants' cottages, in shops, counting- 
houses, farmyards, and guard-rooms ; in blacksmiths' shops 
on land and in fishermen's barques at sea, the controversy 
went on its way, men losing themselves in high converse 
on fate, free-will, and foreknowledge absolute. Not seldom 
the tumult round the churches, even on Sundays, ended 
in open fight with knives, bludgeons, or brickbats. The 
conflict for supremacy between the civil and military 



THE EXILES IN HOLLAND. 135 

elements, as embodied in Barneveld on the one hand and 
Prince Maurice on the other, was coming to a death-grapple. 
In 1617 the prince took military possession of some of the 
principal cities, and one morning the people from Scrooby, 
a'ong with the rest of the citizens, saw the beautiful town- 
hall of Leyden enclosed by a solid palisade of oaken planks, 
strengthened by iron bars with barbed prongs, saw cannon 
planted along the work, and companies of Waartgelders, 
armed from head to foot, drawn up in line. The conviction 
spread through Zealand, Friesland, Groningen, and Guelder- 
land, that the Arminian party was dangerous to the State, 
that the danger should be met by a common act of the 
confederacy, and that to this end a national synod should 
be called. This was the origin of the great Synod of 
Dort. which held its hundred and eighty sessions between 
November, 1618, and the following May, and which ended 
in pronouncing the followers of Arminius to be heretics 
and schismatics, and declaring them incapable of holding 
either clerical or academical post. So for the moment the 
storm passed off till a greater storm should come, and 
Europe, in a Thirty Years' War, be deluged with blood. 



136 



PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 




BOSTON STUMP AND MARKET PLACE. 
(^Froma sketch by Charles Whymper.) 



V. 

THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 

The pastor of the Pilgrim Fathers wielded so powerful an 

influence over the minds of the men who were the earliest 

founders of New England, that it may be worth while to 

see what he was, not only as the pastor of the Leyden 

Church, but also as a worker in the fields of literature. 

There are three volumes of his collected works, ^ and a 

further little tractate which has come to light in recent 

years.^ As we might expect from the circumstances of the 

time, his writings are mainly controversial, but defensive 

rather than offensive. He was the trusted leader of a little 

' The Works of Johii Robinson : luiih Memoir and Annotations by 
Robert Ashton. Three vols. London, 185 1. 
^ A MauuJiiission to a Maniiditction. By John Robinoon. 161 5. 



THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 137 

band of Separatists who were assailed from many sides, 
and he felt it to be his duty to go forth again and again 
into the field as their champion. They had no occasion 
ever to be ashamed of their leader. If his thrusts are 
penetrating, his temper is Christian. He seldom speaks 
bitterly, only, indeed, when he feels more keenly than usual 
the cruel injustice of the time which keeps them in exile 
from the land he loves. 

The non-controversial writings of John Robinson consist 
of sixty-two essays on various religious and moral subjects, 
which had occupied mind and pen during different periods 
of his life, but which did not see the light till after his 
death. He describes them as Nezv Essays ; or, Observa- 
tions Divine a?id Moral, and in framing them he says 
he had respect first of all to the Scriptures, next to the 
memorable sayings of wise and learned men, which he had 
carefully stored up as a precious treasure ; and, lastly, to 
the great book of human life in its many phases, the volume 
of men's manners, which he had diligently observed during 
the days of his pilgrimage, having had special opportunity 
of conversing with men of divers nations, estates, and dis- 
positions in great variety. During his stormy and troubled 
life this kind of study and meditation had been to him full, 
sweet, and delightful, and had often refreshed his spirit 
amidst many sad and sorrowful thoughts unto which God 
had called him. These essays show the varied range of 
his reading as well as the reflective character of his mind. 
We find him quoting Plato, Aristotle, Herodotus, Thales, 
Cicero, Terence, Pliny, Plutarch, Seneca, Epictetus, and 
Suetonius ; among the Fathers, Ignatius, Tertullian, 
Cyprian, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory Nazianzen, Lac- 
tantius, Jerome, Basil, and Eusebius ; while from among 
the writers of later times we find quotations from Bernard, 
Anselm, Scaliger, Beza, Erasmus, and Melanchthon, as well 
as from his own contemporaries. 



138 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

The subjects dealt with in these essays are too many 

and too varied for anything like orderly analysis, but we 

may recall a few of the many sententious and sagacious 

sayings scattered through these pages and worthy of 

remembrance. For example, to good men we must do 

good, he says, because they do deserve it ; to strangers 

because they may deserve it and do stand in need of it ; 

to all men because God deserves it at our hands for them. 

Then, too, we ought to accept kindness as well as give it, 

for to refuse a kindness offered is to shame it, as a ball 

ill-sent and let fall to the ground. It is dangerous in 

religion, he thinks, to fall forward by overmuch zeal, yet 

not so dangerous as to fall backward by an unfaithful heart. 

The former may injure his face and lose his comfort, but 

the latter is in danger utterly to break the neck of his 

conscience, as old Eli by falling backward brake his neck 

bodily and died. A man hath in truth so much religion as 

he hath between the Lord and himself in secret, and no 

more. At the same time God is not partial, as men are ; 

nor regards that church and chamber religion towards Him 

which is not accompanied in the house and streets with 

loving-kindness and mercy and all goodness towards men. 

He that strives for error strives for Satan against God ; he 

that strives for victory strives for himself against other 

men ; but he that strives for truth against error helps the 

Lord against God's and his own enemy, Satan, the father 

of lies. Talking of fickleness, while there is wantonness in 

finding and following new fashions of apparel, it were well 

if this vanity and newfangledness were to be seen only on 

people's backs. He has known divers that have more 

lightly and licentiously changed their religion, and that in 

no small points, than a sober man would the fashion of his 

coat, and who if it might but have gained or saved them 

twelve pence would have held their former religion still. 

Speaking on other matters, he says that love is the load- 



THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. I39 

stone of love, and the most ready and compendious way to 
be beloved of others is to love them first. While it is an 
ancient and received saying that heresy ariseth from want 
of faith, and schism from want of love, yet men are often 
accounted heretics, with greater sin, through want of charity 
in the judges, than through defect of faith in the judged. 
' Of old some have been branded for heretics for believing 
in the existence of the antipodes ; others for holding the 
original of the soul by traduction ; others for thinking that 
Mary the mother of Christ had other children by her 
husband Joseph : the first being a certain fact, the second 
a philosophical doubt, and the third, even if it were an 
error, one neither against foundation nor post of the Scrip- 
ture building.' As for schism, the Scriptures note it as 
sometimes made from the Church but most commonly in 
it. In the matter of truth and falsehood, he holds that 
nothing true in right reason and sound philosophy is, or 
can be, false in divinity. Though the truth be uttered by 
the devil himself, yet is it originally of God. Our Lord 
Christ called Himself truth, not custom, neither is falsehood, 
error, or heresy convinced by novelty, but by truth. ' This 
truth is always the same whilst the God of truth is in 
heaven, what entertainment soever it find with men upon 
earth ; it is always praiseworthy, though no man praise it ; 
and hath no just cause to be ashamed, though it often goes 
with a scratched face. They that fight against truth are 
like the floods beating upon the strong rocks, which are so 
much the more miserably dashed in pieces by how much 
they are the more violently carried.' He is of opinion that 
while want of wisdom makes some men too forward m 
speaking, over-much wisdom makes other men too back- 
ward. ' As the bird often flies away whilst the fowler still 
seeks to get nearer and nearer her, so doth golden oppor- 
tunity many times, whilst we wait too long for better and 
fitter passage for our speech.' ' As a woman over-curiously 



140 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

trimmed is to be suspected, so is a speech. And, indeed, 
he that goes about by eloquence, without firm ground of 
reason, to persuade goes about to deceive. As some are 
large in speech out of abundance of matter and upon due 
consideration, so the most multiply words either from 
weakness or vanity. Some excuse their tediousness, saying 
that they cannot speak shorter, which is all one as if they 
said that they have unbridled tongues and inordinate 
passions setting them a-work. I have been many times 
drawn so dry, that I could not well speak any longer for 
want of matter : but I could ever speak as short as I 
would.' 

Speaking of society and friendship, he notes that the 
woman in the Gospels who lost her piece of money lit 
the candle, swept the house, and sought diligently, and 
this she did alone, but when she had found it she called in 
her friends and neighbours to rejoice with her ; upon which 
he observes that it is best mourning alone, and best rejoicing 
in company. Some friends, he thinks, are rather to be used 
than trusted, others rather to be trusted than used. So the 
proverb fitteth — ' Rich men's purses and poor men's hearts.' 
Wealth makes many friends, and poverty tries them ; as 
the wind shows which clouds have rain in them and which 
not. There are in pride, he thinks, many strange touches. 
Some men are proud of not being proud, nor lofty in car- 
riage, apparel, or contempt of inferiors ; and of being called 
rather good-man than master, and rather master than Sir 
Kjiight. Then, again, many will go on tiptoes, though bare- 
foot, being proud of no man knows what, either within or 
without them ; and none more than they. Speaking in the 
closing essay of death, he points out that natural death 
stands in the separation of the soul from the body ; spiritual, 
of the soul and the whole man from God, in respect of grace ; 
eternal in respect both of grace and glory, with the sense 
of the contrary evils. The first death is a natural evil, the 



THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 141 

second a spiritual, the third both. We have also such 
aphorisms as these : ' Young folk may die shortly, but the 
aged cannot live long. The green apple may be plucked 
ofif or shaken down by violence, but the ripe will fall of 
itself Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his 
saints, as the gold melting and dissolving in the furnace is 
as much esteemed by the goldsmith as any in his shop or 
purse. If he put their tears in his bottle, he will not 
neglect their blood, nor easily suffer it to be shed ; neither 
doth death, when it comes, part him and them, though it 
part man and man, yea man and wife, yea man in himself, 
his soul and body.' * Wc are not to mourn for the death 
of our Christian friends as they who are without hope, 

either in regard of them or of ourselves But we 

should take occasion by their deaths to love this world the 
less out of which they are taken ; and heaven the more 
whither they are gone before us, and where we shall ever 
enjoy them.' 

Possibly in many of the wise sayings scattered through 
these two and sixty essays we have unspent echoes of some 
of the sermons to which the Pilgrims listened during their 
Leyden days. And as we catch up these echoes again we 
feel that Governor Bradford spake truly when he tells us 
that this revered pastor of theirs was a man not easily 
paralleled for all things ; was learned and of a solid judg- 
ment, and of a quick and sharp wit, was of a tender 
conscience, and very sincere in all his ways ; was never 
satisfied in himself until he had searched any cause or 
argument he had to deal in thoroughly and to the bottom ; 
and that he was very profitable in his ministry and com- 
fortable to his people. 

The rest of his Works were necessarily, from the stress 
of the times, as we have said, mainly controversial. The 
Separatists had to defend their principles of church govern- 
ment by the Christian people under the headship of Christ 



142 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND. 

from Episcopalians and Presbyterians alike. In this way- 
it came to pass that it was in the field of controversy that 
Robinson made his first appearance as an author. In the 
year 1609, the year of migration from Amsterdam to 
Leyden, he published a reply to Joseph Hall, the vicar of 
Halstead, in Essex, better known as the Bishop of Norwich 
of a later time. Hall had sent forth what Robinson called 
' a censorious epistle,' which was addressed to John Smyth 
and himself, whom the writer described as ' ringleaders of 
the late separation at Amsterdam,' and whom he blames 
for their separation from the Church of England. She may 
have her faults : this were cause enough for them to lament 
her, to pray for her, to labour for her redress, not to avoid 
her. This unnaturalness is shameful. If they had only 
loved peace half so well as truth, this breach had never 
been, and they who were yet brethren had been still 
companions. Is the Church of England Babylon ? If so, 
where are the main buildings of that accursed city — 
infallibility, dispensings of sin, deposition of princes and 
the like ? Where her rotten heaps of corrupt errors — 
transubstantiation, image worship, indulgences and pil- 
grimages ? Where her deep vaults of penances and 
purgatories .-* Are they not all razed and buried in the 
dust? He thinks they may find too late that it would 
have been a thousand times better to swallow a ceremony 
than to rend a Church ; yea, that even whoredoms and 
murders shall abide an easier answer than separation. 

To this Robinson makes answer that separation is not 
the odious thing his opponent seems to think it, for separa- 
tion from the world, and so from whatsoever is contrary to 
God, is the first step to our communion with God and 
angels and good men, as the first step to a ladder is to 
leave the earth. As to his being 'a ringleader,' if a thing 
be good, it is good and commendable to be forward in it. 
Let it be shown that it is wrong, and if he have fled away 



THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 143 

on foot he will return on horseback. Hall charges him 
with unnaturalness towards their mother, the Church of 
England ; but we must not so cleave to Holy Mother 
Church as to neglect our Heavenly Father and His com- 
mandments. She may be our mother and yet not the 
Lord's wife. Were not Luther, Zwinglius, Cranmer, Latimer 
and the rest begotten of the Lord in the womb of the 
Romish Church, and yet did they not forsake her, and that 
justly for her fornications? Though they have forsaken 
England for Holland, yet have they not ceased to love and 
desire to live in their native land. The commonwealth and 
kingdom of England they honour above all states of the 
world, and if with a free conscience they might live there, 
they would thankfully embrace the meanest corner in the 
land, at the extremest conditions of any people in the 
kingdom. 

Robinson's next book, .^ Justification of Separation frovi 
the CJnirch of England, was a more elaborate production on 
the same theme, and was also a reply to a remonstrance 
from the other side. In 1608, the year the exiles left 
Scrooby for Amsterdam, their former neighbour, Richard 
Bernard, of Worksop, sent forth a little book entitled, 
Christian Advertisements and Counsels of Peace. Also 
Dissuasions from the Separatists' Schism, commonly called 
Broivnism. To this Robinson makes reply in a justification 
of his separation, which is the longest and most elaborate 
work we have from his pen.^ He would much rather, he 
says, have built up himself and that poor flock over which 
the Holy Ghost has set him in holy peace, as becometh the 
house of God, than enter the lists of contention ; but feeling 
that he must defend the truth, he will endeavour in a good 
conscience before God so to bear himself as not to be 

^ A yustification of Separation fto/n the Church of England, 
against Mr. Richard Bernard : his Invective. Entitled the Separa- 
tists' Schisme. By John Robinson, 1610. 



144 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

contentious in contention. He cannot admire the manner 
of those who commend peace that they may smother truth 
and plead for Caesar's due that they may detain from God 
His due. It is an easier thing, he is aware, to tie knots 
than to loose them, and a simple man may cast a stone into 
a ditch which a wise man cannot get out again, still the 
questions at issue between him and the minister of 
Worksop are, after all, not so dark and doubtful that a 
man needs take so long a journey as the Queen of Sheba 
did for resolution. For himself so dearly does he love 
preaching the Gospel that he would count himself happy if 
with the exchange of half the days of his life he might 
freely publish it in his own nation. Still even for so good 
a work he dare not by a bait draw his conscience, as a bird 
into a snare, into most fearful entanglements. He is aware 
that against separation good men have spoken strongly ;. 
indeed, he has to confess that a long time before he entered 
this way himself he took some taste of the truth in it by 
some treatises published in justification of it, which the 
Lord knoweth were sweet as honey to his mouth, and the 
only thing which kept him back then was the over-valuation 
which he made of the learning and holiness of these men, 
he being afraid to press one hairsbreadth in this thing 
before men, behind whom he knew himself to come so 
many miles in all things. Indeed, since then, having 
searched the Scriptures and found much light, had not the 
truth been in his heart as a burning fire shut up in his 
bones he had never broken those bonds of flesh and 
blood wherein he was so straitly tied ; but had suffered the 
light of God to have been put out in his own unthankful 
heart by other men's darkness. 

Bernard had defended the mixed communion of all the 
persons in a parish, whatever their spiritual condition, by 
having recourse as usual to the parable of the tares and 
the wheat, interpreting the field to be the visible Church 



THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 145 

and the tares scandalous offenders. If this be the right 
interpretation, Robinson replies, then the power which 
Christ gave to His Church to root out obstinate offenders 
is not only weakened, but disannulled. Moreover, if offen- 
ders be not to be cast out, how dare the prelates of 
England take this forbidden weed-hook and uproot the 
Separatists ? If any tares be to be plucked up, why not 
all? And if all be to be let alone, why meddle they with 
any } If they execute their own canons, perhaps • they 
would not be so much plucking up the tares from among 
the wheat as the wheat from among the tares. But if the 
Lord Jesus, who knew His own meaning, calls the field 
not the Church but the world, as He does, why should we 
admit any other interpretation } This mixture of all sorts, 
godly and ungodly, in a parish is of the very essence of a 
National Church ; but what husbandman is either so foolish 
or so careless as to sow his field with tares and wheat 
together .'' Yet this fair field of England, of whose beauty 
all the Christian world is enamoured, is so sown, this 
pleasant orchard so planted, this flourishing Church so 
gathered ! 

Passing to the executive authority in the State Church, 
Robinson shows that it is neither in the people nor the 
principal members. The truth is that in the parish church 
of Worksop, and also in all the other parish churches in the 
land, there is only one member that hath power, and that 
under the ordinary, namely, the parish priest. But for the 
exercising of the censures, that belongs not to the whole 
body or to any member thereof, principal or less principal, 
but to the bishop and his substitute, who are foreigners and 
strangers. The minister's only portion in the censure is to 
do the executioner's office when the ofificial has played the 
judge ; and even if he should be so bold as to refuse, he 
would be punished for his contumacy and the church door 
would do his office, for the bill of excommunication hanged 

L 



146 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

up there by the sumner binds the offenders both in heaven 
and earth. 

Robinson contends that the company of faithful people 
even without the officers are the Church. For if not, if 
Mr. Bernard, for example, should leave his vicarage for a 
better, then the church of Worksop would be dischurched 
and remain a church no longer. Thus an assembly might 
be churched and unchurched and churched again every 
week during a time of persecution or plague, by having and 
losing and recovering again her officers. Referring to the 
size of a church, he maintains that two or three gathered 
in the name of Christ have the same right with two or 
three hundred ; neither the smallness of the number nor 
the meanness of the persons can prejudice their right. He 
goes on to show that a true ecclesiastical polity doth com- 
prehend within itself whatsoever is excellent in all other 
bodies political. Thus wise men writing on this subject 
have approved as good and lawful three kinds of polities — 
monarchical, aristocratical, and democratical — and all these 
three forms have their place in the Church of Christ. In 
respect of Christ the head it is a monarchy, in respect of 
its officers it is an aristocracy, and in respect of the body a 
popular state. The governors of the Church must be in 
and of the Church they govern, but they are not the 
Church. In the apostles' time, as we learn from the Acts 
of the Apostles, preaching was carried on to and fro, 
turning and joining of multitudes to the Lord when neither 
apostles nor officers were present ; for this is too gross to 
affirm that during all the apostles' days nothing was begun 
but by them. And what if the Lord should now raise up 
a company of faithful men and women in Barbary or 
America by the reading of the Scriptures or by the 
writings, conferences, or sufferings of some godly men ? 
Must they not join themselves to the Lord in the fellow- 
ship of the Gospel, nor have any communion together for 



THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 147 

their mutual edification and comfort, till some vagrant 
priest from Rome or England be sent unto them to begin 
their church matters with his service-book ? And yet he, 
from his unknown tongue, might be a barbarian to them, 
and they barbarians unto him. 

Dealing with the well-known passage, Matthew xviii. 17, 
* Tell it unto the Church,' he thinks it is as clear as the 
sun that the Church there means the assembly whereof the 
offender is a member. Whomsoever the Lord Jesus meant 
by ' the Church ' He certainly never meant that the Arch- 
bishop of York, the Archdeacon of Nottingham, and the 
official of Southwell were the Church of Worksop. So far 
are they from being the Church of Worksop that they are 
not so much as members of it, nor of any other particular 
church in the kingdom ; they are neither the pastors so 
called nor under the pastors of any particular church, but 
with their transcendent jurisdiction in their provincial and 
diocesan churches take their scope without orb or order. 

Robinson contends that to maintain that government 
suffers by being in the hands of the people, and to deprive 
them of their rights in consequence, is to act in the spirit of 
those who enclose the commons of their poorer neighbours 
on the plea that common things are commonly neglected, 
and that by enclosing one acre of ground they can make it 
worth two acres left in common. He further disapproves 
of the choice of a minister for a congregation being left to 
a patron, and asks, if the patron stand in the room of the 
people to choose for them, who set him there .'' If some 
one man in a parish had entailed to him and his heirs for 
ever the power of appointing husbands to all the women in 
the parish, it would be an intolerable civil bondage, and it 
is an intolerable spiritual bondage for parish assemblies to 
be under the imperious presentations of those lord patrons 
whose clerks they must submit unto whether they will or 
no. Great is the sin of the people who lose this liberty, 

L 2 



148 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

greater that of the patrons who engross it. The bond 
between the minister and the people he holds to be one of the 
closest and most sacred kind, and is therefore not one to be 
entered upon but with mutual consent. This mutual rela- 
tion has many advantages : it incites the minister himself 
to all diligence and faithfulness ; it is a source of comfort 
to him under all the trials and temptation incident to the 
minister's life, and it much furthers the love of the people 
to the person of their minister. 

Such is the main drift, briefly summarised, of John 
Robinson's main venture into the field of authorship. The 
year following its publication letters passed between him 
and William Ames, then at the Hague, on the question 
of communion among believers. This correspondence led 
Robinson to issue in 1614 a treatise of some extent on 
Religions Coniinunion, Private and Public. Comparing 
the book of 1614 with the letters of 161 1, his opinions 
seem to have undergone some modification, are certainly 
softened in expression. Referring to those in England 
who point to the dissensions which sometimes arise in free 
Christian communities, he reminds them that they only 
who enjoy liberty know how hard it is to enjoy it aright. 
Two prisoners being chained and manacled together, feet 
and hands, may wonder that other men at liberty do not 
walk closer together. Passing from this point to his main 
purpose he maintains that he with those who are with 
him, ' who profess a separation from the English national, 
provincial, diocesan, and parochial church and churches in 
the whole formal state and order tliereof, may, notwith- 
standing, lawfully communicate in private prayer and other 
the like holy exercises (not performed in their Church 
communion, nor by their Church power and ministr}-) 
with the godly amongst them, though remaining members 
of the Church.' With the large tolerance of mind and 
feeling with which his name is associated, Robinson says : 



THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 149 

' For myself thus I believe with my heart before God, and 
profess with my tongue, and that before the world, that I 
have one and the same faith, hope, spirit, baptism, and 
Lord which I had in the Church of England, and none 
other; that I esteem so many in that Church, of what state 
or order soever, as are truly partakers of that faith, as I 
account many thousands to be, for my Christian brethren, 
and myself, a fellows-member with them of that one 
mystical body of Christ scattered far and wide throughout 
the world ; that I have always in spirit and affection all 
Christian fellowship and communion with them, and am 
most ready in all outward actions and exercises of religion, 
lawful and lawfully done, to express the same ; ' saving 
only ' that I cannot communicate with or submit unto the 
said Church order and ordinances there established, either 
in state or act, without being condemned of mine own 
heart, and therein provoking God, who is greater than m^ 
heart, to condemn me much more.' 

To meet this state of mind William Ames sent forth 
A Manudtiction for Mr. Robinson and such as consort ivith 
him in private communion to lead them on to publick} 
He tries by certain queries to break down, as he says, the 
middle wall of partition between private communion and 
public conformity. Moreover, he intimates that to his 
knowledge Robinson has often been at services where 
Mr. Perkins's service-book appeared, and once also came 
to listen to the sermon of Mr. Perkins's successor, and that 
since his professed separation. To this Robinson replied 
in a little pamphlet entitled, A Manumission to a Manu- 
duction? He contends there is an important difference 

1 'Briefly comprised in a letter written to Mr. R. W., at Dort. 
Printed by George Waters. And are to be sould at his shop at the 
Signe of the Snuffers, on the Fishmarket. 1614.' 

^ A Manuinission to a Maniiduction ; or answer to a Letter 
inferring' Pnblique Covinninion in the parish assemblies upon private 
with godly persons there. By John Robinson. Anno Domini, 161 5. 



ISO PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

between private communion with good men and public 
conformity to a system which ignores the rights of the 
Christian commonalty. ' The Church of England/ he says, 
' doth acknowledge no such calling as is chiefly grounded 
upon the people's choice, but only that which is grounded 
upon the bishop's ordination, and that not to the ministry 
of some one church, but to the ministry at large ; and 
determinately cither upon the bishop's license, or upon the 
patron's presentation, the bishop's institution, and arch- 
deacon's induction, confirmed by the public laws of the 
same Church, both ecclesiastical and civil. The mere fact 
that the people accept and submit to a ministry when they 
have no alternative does not alter the essential character 
of the procedure. The parish ministry is a branch of the 
prelacy, as receiving power from it by which it doth 
administer ; and therefore to be avoided by God's people.' 
In reply to what Ames says as to his inconsistency in 
being present at certain services, he gives us a piece of 
autobiography not without interest. It is true, he says, 
that during the time he was debating the question of 
separation in his mind, and disputing for it with others, 
but had not otherwise professed it, he had been present at 
the services of the National Church. As to what took 
place later, on the occasion referred to by Ames, he will 
state the facts, and leave him to gain what advantage he 
can out of them : ' Coming to Cambridge (as to other 
places where I hoped most to find satisfaction to my 
troubled heart), I went the forenoon to Mr. Cha[derton] his 
exercise ; who upon the relation which Mary made to the 



This reply to Ames is not found in the collected edition of Robinson's 
Works, having come to light since 1851. The first copy known in 
recent years came into the possession of Charles Deane, LL.D., Vice- 
President of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and was reprinted 
in the Collections of that Society. 4th Series ; Vol. i. A second copy 
of the original edition was obtained by the British IMuseum, through 
Dr. R. W. Dale, of Birmingham, April, 1894. 



THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 151 

disciples of the resurrection of Christ, dehvered in effect 
this doctrine, that the things which concerned the whole 
Church were to be declared publicly to the whole Church, 
and not to some part only, bringing for instance and proof 
the words of Christ, Matt, xviii. 17, confirming therein one 
main ground of our difference from the Church of England, 
which is that Christ hath given his power for excommu- 
nication to the whole Church gathered together in His 
name, as i Cor. v., the officers as governors and the people 
as governed in the use thereof, unto which Church his 
servants are commanded to bring their necessary com- 
plaints. And I would desire mine opposite either to show 
me how and where this Church is having this power in the 
parish assemblies, or else by what warrant of God's word, 
I (knowing what Christ the Lord commanded herein) may 
with good conscience remain a member of a church without 
this power, much less where the contrary is advanced, and 
so go on in the known transgression of that his command- 
ment—" Tell it to the Church." ' 

' In the afternoon I went to hear Mr. B[aynes], the 
successor of Mr. Perkins, who from Eph. v. 7 or 1 1 showed 
the unlawfulness of familiar conversation between the 
servants of God and the wicked, upon these grounds or 
most of them : That the former are light and the other 
darkness, between which God hath separated ; the godly 
hereby are endangered to be leavened with the others' 
wickedness ; that the wicked are hereby hardened in 
receiving such approbation from the godly ; and that 
others are thereby offended and occasioned to think they 
are all alike, and as birds of a feather. Whom afterwards, 
privately, I desired, as I do also others, to consider whether 
these very reasons make not as effectually and much more 
against the spiritual communion of God's people, especially 
where there wants the means of reformation, with the 
apparently wicked, to whom they are as light to darkness.' 



152 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Ames had remarked on the fact that Robinson did not 
refuse pubhc communion with the Reformed Churches of the 
Continent, though they, Hke the EngHsh Church, used a 
form of prayer ; to which he replied that he should not 
refuse all public communion with a true church because of 
the use of set forms of prayer ; but there was a difference 
in his opinion between their use in the Reformed Churches 
and in the unreformed Church of England ; a difference 
not only in the matter and sundry orders thereof, but more 
especially in the manner of imposing it, which in the 
Reformed Churches is not by compulsion, nor as in the 
Church of England, where the reading of it is preferred 
before and above the preaching of the Gospel. In the 
latter Church more ministers (and those of the best sort) 
have been deprived of their ministry in a few months for 
the not reading and observing it in manner and form, than 
have been ever since the Pope was expelled, not only for 
not preaching (for which no man is censured), but for all 
other wickedness of what kind soever, though abounding in 
the ministry there. By which that their set service is 
advanced above all that is called God, and made the very 
idol to which both great and small are compelled to bow 
down and it to honour. 

In 1618 Robinson published TJie Peoples Plea for the 
exercise of Pi-opJiecy, a defence of lay-preaching in reply to 
John Yates, B.D., minister of St. Andrew's Church, Norwich, 
who had written against Persons Prophesying out of Office. 
This reply was dedicated by Robinson to his Christian 
friends at Norwich and thereabouts, to whom he had 
ministered in former years, and of whom, he says, he has 
always loving and thankful remembrance. Joseph Hall 
had about the same time published his Apology of the 
ChnrcJi of England, and Robinson says, if it be asked why 
he did not reply to this rather than to the smaller work by 
Yates, he answers that truth requires that not persons but 



THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 153 

things be answered, and things there are none in Hall's 
book which have not been already answered in his reply to 
Bernard. Moreover, he puts as great a difference between 
Hall and Yates as between a word-wise orator better able 
to feed his readers with leaves of words and flowers of 
rhetoric than with fruits of knowledge, and a man sincerely 
zealous for the truth, as Mr. Yates. 

Mr. Yates argued that from the commission of Christ, 
given John xx. 21-23, ^ prophecy in public is to remit 
and retain sins, and that Christ grants this power to none 
but such as He sends and ordains thereunto. Robinson 
assents to the position that all prophecy in public is for the 
remitting and retaining of sins, but not to the assertion that 
Christ grants this power to none but such as He sends and 
ordains by the commission given in the passage in question, 
for in that case He would have granted to none but 
apostles. His answer would have been more effective 
had he noticed that when our Lord gave the commission 
recorded by John He gave it to all who were present in the 
room where the disciples were met with locked doors for 
fear of the Jews, and that others besides the apostles were 
present. It is evident that the gathering on the first 
Easter Sunday evening mentioned by John is the same 
as that recorded by Luke (xxiv. 33). If so, there were 
certainly other disciples present besides the apostles. For, 
as Luke tells us, when the two disciples returned to 
Jerusalem from Emmaus, they found the eleven gathered 
together, and tJiein that zuere ivith them. These two dis- 
ciples themselves, one of whom was named Cleopas, had 
joined the company before Jesus appeared, and were 
certainly not apostles. The disciples, not merely the 
apostles, were glad when they saw the Lord, and it was 
upon the whole body of those in Jerusalem thus gathered 
together that Jesus breathed, and to whom He said : 
' Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whosoever sins ye forgive, 



154 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

they are forgiven unto them ; whosoever sins ye retain, 
they are retained.' 

Robinson having said that the woman of Samaria carried 
the truth about Christ to her countrymen, Yates exclaims : 
' O simplicity which cannot see between preaching of the 
Gospel and carrying tidings of a man that told her all 
things that ever she did.' Robinson rejoins : * It is indeed 
my simplicity to think that the Gospel, as the word 
importeth, is nothing else but glad tidings, and that to 
preach the Gospel is nothing else but to carry or bring glad 
tidings of Christ, before promised, then come into the 
world. Through her many of the Samaritans believed 
on Christ, therefore she preached the word as truly and 
effectually as ever did minister to his parishioners, though 
she went not up into a pulpit to do it.' After other arguments 
in defence of his position, Robinson concludes by saying 
that in Leyden, where he is living, it is not only permitted 
as lawful, but required as necessary that men not in office 
and not ordained should preach, that such as have bent 
their thoughts towards the ministry should beforehand use 
their gifts publicly in the church. Intolerable bondage, he 
says, it would be thought by them to be, if they had to 
have pastors ordained for them, as all there are unto the 
places in which they are to minister, of whose ability in 
teaching they had had no opportunity of taking former ex- 
perience. Finally he trusts that the Lord will give courage 
unto His people to stand for this liberty of lay-preaching 
among the rest of the liberties wherewith Christ hath made 
them free. 

It was not till 1624, and therefore nearly at the close 
of his life, that Robinson published his Just and Necessary 
Apology of certain Christians no less contiimelionsly than 
coimno7ily called Brozvnists or Barroivists. In this he says 
he agrees with Jerome that the crime of heresy none ought 
patiently to endure ; but if he and his people are charged 



THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 155 

with being heretics they have this consolation, that they 
have with them their gracious Lord and Saviour, by whose 
judgment alone, notwithstanding all men's prejudices, they 
shall stand or fall for ever. If any in this world have need 
to get this divine comfort deeply printed in their hearts, 
he and those with him have, since their profession gives 
occasion to many, and their condition liberty to all, to 
spare no severity of censure upon them. Four sorts of 
heavy friends they have found and felt in sorrowful experi- 
ence, wherever they have gone : the unhallowed multitude 
walking perversely ; those who are enamoured of the 
Romish hierarchy as of a stately and potent lady, who are 
servilely in bondage, themselves and their consciences, 
either to the edicts of certain princes, or to the determina- 
tion of certain doctors, or both these together, who think 
nothing well done in case of religion which either these 
teach not or command not, and on the other hand regard 
almost anything warranted which is commended by the 
one or commanded by the other ; and finally they have 
suffered from those who through credulity and lightness of 
belief have their minds open to false and feigned sugges- 
tions of slanderous tongues. He maintains that the 
Separatists are not, as is alleged, unduly contentious. So 
far from that, he says : 

* We account the Reformed Churches true Churches of 
Jesus Christ, and here in Holland both profess and practise 
communion with them in the holy things of God ; their 
sermons such of ours frequent as understand the Dutch 
tongue ; the sacraments we do administer unto their 
known members, if by occasion any of them be present 
with us ; and we do desire from the Lord their holy and 
firm peace.' Having declared and defended the principles 
and practice of the Leyden Church, he most willingly 
admits that in the Church of England lively faith and true 
piety are both begotten and nourished in the hearts of 



156 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

many by the preaching of the Gospel within her borders. 
' God forbid,' he cries, * that we should not acknowledge 
that, and withal that infinite thanks for the same are due 
to God's great power and goodness ! ' 

What, in spite of all his Christian charity, he must and 
will affirm is that the parish assemblies, with their motley 
gatherings of all sorts of characters at the Lord's table, are 
not in any real and scriptural sense Churches of Christ. 

'That so it stands with the Church of England, no man 
to whom England is known can be ignorant, seeing that 
all the natives there and subjects of the kingdom, although 
never such strangers from the show of true piety and 
goodness, and fraught never so full with many most heinous 
impieties and vices, are without difference compelled and 
enforced by most severe laws, civil and ecclesiastical, into 
the body of that Church. And of this confused heap a 
few, compared with the rest, godly persons mingled among 
is that national church, commonly called the Church of 
England, collected and framed. Such is the material 
constitution of that church. It is constituted only by their 
parish perambulation and the standing of the houses in 
which they dwell. Every subject of the kingdom dwelling 
in this or that parish, whether in city or country, whether in 
his own or other man's house, is thereby, ipso facto, made 
legally a member of the same parish in which that house is 
situated, and bound, will he nill he, fit or unfit, as with 
iron bonds, and all his with him, to participate in all holy 
things, and some unholy also, in that same parish church.' 

To the Christian reader he makes his final appeal. If 
he and his are in error, let them be advertised brotherly. 
' Err we may, alas ! too easily ; but heretics by the grace 
of God we will not be.' If, however, men be either fore- 
stalled by prejudice, or by prosperity made secure, 'this 
alone remaineth that we turn our faces and mouths unto 
Thee, O most powerful Lord and gracious Father, humbly 



THE WRITINGS OF JOHN ROBINSON. 157 

imploring help from God towards those who are by men 
left desolate. There is with Thee no respect of persons, 
neither are men less rcgarders of Thee, if regarders of Thee, 
for the world's disregarding them. They who truly fear 
Thee and work righteousness, although constrained to live 
by leave in a foreign land, exiled from country, spoiled of 
goods, destitute of friends, few in number and mean in 
condition, are for all that unto Thee (O gracious God) 
nothing the less acceptable. Thou numberest all their 
wanderings and puttest their tears into Thy bottles. Are 
they not written in Thy book ? Towards Thee, O Lord, 
are our eyes ; confirm our hearts, and bend Thine ear, and 
suffer not our feet to slip or our face to be ashamed, O 
Thou just and Merciful God ! ' 



158 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



VI. 

WHERE LIES THE LAND? 

Where lies the land to which the ship would go ? 

Far, far ahead, is all her seamen know. — A. H. Clotigh. 

Watching the birds in field and woodland as the time 
for migration draws near, you note a strange restlessness 
coming over them which they seem unable to resist. He 
who guides their wondrous flight across the sea also implants 
within them the longing to go. Some such longing, also 
divinely implanted, came over the hearts of the exiles in 
Leyden, after years of sojourn among strangers. Human 
reasons there were on the surface sufficient to make them 
wish to go, but the real reason lay deeper, in the very 
heart of the Divine purpose. That God who is the 
beginning and the author of nations was calling them as 
surely as He called Abraham from east to west, saying : 
Get thee out of thy country into a land which I will show 
thee.' Like Abraham, they heard a voice calling them 
away from the city where they dwelt ; like him, they went 
forth in faith, not knowing whither they went ; and like 
him, too, they went to found a great nation and become a 
multitude of people. They, even as we, found themselves 
in a world in which they were not to rest content, except 
in the contentment of advance. 

The human reasons for leaving Leyden which lay near 
at hand on the surface were many and forcible. For the 
conditions of life where they lived were stern and hard, so 
that few from the mother country cared to come and join 
them, even preferring the prisons in England to liberty in 



WHERE LIES THE LAND? 159 

Holland under such conditions ; others who did come soon 
spent their estate, and were forced to return to England, 
shrinking from great labour and hard fare. They loved 
the persons of their brethren in Leyden, approved their 
cause and honoured their sufferings, yet were forced to 
leave them ; regretfully they left, as Orpah left Naomi, 
apologetically, as the Romans left Cato, saying they could 
not all be Catos. Then, too, what touched the hearts of 
the exiles keenly was that some of their own children 
began to sink under the hardships of their lot ; their minds 
were free and willing enough to share their parents' 
burdens, but their bodies bowed under the weight of the 
same, so that they became decrepit even in early youth, 
and the vigour of nature seemed to be consumed in the 
bud. While this was true of the more gracious of their 
children, others less amenable were drawn aside by the 
temptations of the city, and were led by evil example into 
extravagant and dangerous courses. Some of their sons 
enlisted into the armies of the Netherlands, others took 
service as sailors in the Dutch merchantmen, while others 
again fell into dissolute ways, ' to the great grief of their 
parents and dishonour of God.' Then, again, there was 
the fact that the twelve years' truce with Spain would soon 
come to an end by mere lapse of time, and if they still 
remained in the country, they might then find themselves 
in the stress and straits of another Leyden siege. Even if 
it should not come to this, some of them were distressed 
by the fact that they could not, in the circumstances in 
which they found themselves, give to their children such 
education as they had themselves received ; and they were 
pained, too, by the open profanation of the Sabbath day 
prevalent among the Dutch. So rife was this evil that 
even the Dutch ministers themselves deplored their inability 
to keep their people away from Sunday sports and labour ; 
and the clergy sent over by King James to represent 



i6o PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

England at the Synod of Dort felt called upon to move 
the Synod to make strong representations to the local 
magistracy on the subject. Further, these exiles were still 
Englishmen in heart and soul. The spirit of nationality 
and the love of self-government were too strong within 
them to permit them to think with equanimity of the 
possibility of their descendants becoming absorbed into 
the Dutch nation. Then, to quote Bradford's own words : 
' Lastly (and which was not the least) a great hope and 
inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation, or at 
least to make some way thereunto, for the propagating and 
advancing the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in those 
remote parts of the world ; yea, though they should be 
but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performing 
of so great a work.' 

Another reason had probably some weight with them, 
though not mentioned cither by Bradford or Winslow. 
Even in Leyden they were not altogether beyond the 
reach of harassment from King James. The States of 
Holland, anxious to retain him as their ally against Spain, 
were afraid to offend him, and permitted him at times still 
to disturb those of his subjects who had sought asylum 
among them. The correspondence of Sir Dudley Carleton, 
at that time English ambassador at the Hague, furnishes 
us with a case in point. Among the brethren in the 
Leyden Church was a Kentish man of the name of Thomas 
Brewer, whom Carleton, writing to Secretary Naunton, in 
London, describes as * a gentleman of a good house, both 
of land and living, which none of his profession in these 
parts are ; though through the reveries of his religion (he 
being, as I advertised your honour, a profest Brownist) he 
hath mortgaged and consumed a great part of his estate.' ^ 
In conjunction with William Brewster, Brewer had, as we 

^ Letters from and to Sir Dudley Carleton, Knt., during his Embassy 
in Holland from i6 15-16 to December, 1620, p. 406. 



WHERE LIES THE LAND? i6r 

have seen, set up a printing-office in the Choorsteeg, for 
the purpose of producing such English books explanatory 
of their principles as were forbidden to be printed at home. 
Carleton, reporting to Naunton, says : ' This Brewer, and 
Brewster, whom he hath set to work, having kept no open 
shop nor printed many books fit for public sale in these 
provinces, their practice was to print prohibited books, to 
be vented underhand in His Majesty's kingdoms.' Two 
books printed in the Netherlands, though as it turned out 
not by them, had excited the wrath of James, who sent 
instructions to Carleton to take action in the matter. 
Acting upon these instructions, Carleton writes to Secretary 
Naunton under date July 22, 1619, and says, * I believe I 
have discovered the printer of De Regimine Ecclesiae 
Scoticanae, which His Majesty was informed to be done in 
Middleburgh, and that is one William Brewster, a Brownist, 
who hath been for some years an inhabitant and printer 
at Leyden, but is now within this three weeks removed from 
thence and gone back to dwell in London, where he may 
be found out and examined not only of this book but 
likewise of the PertJi Assembly, of which, if he was not the 
printer himself, he assuredly knows both printer and 
author ; for, as I am informed, he hath had, whilst he 
remained here, his hand in all such books as have been 
sent over into England and Scotland, as, particularly, a 
book in folio, entitled A Confutathm of the RJieuiish trans- 
lation, anno 16 18.' ^ 

A month later (Aug. 20) Carleton tells Naunton, ' I 
have made good inquiry after William Brewster at Leyden, 
and am well assured that he is not returned thither, neither 
is it likely he will, having removed from thence his family 
and his goods.' ^ Meantime, while Sir Dudley was keepino- 
a sharp look-out for Brewster in Holland, we catch a 
glimpse of what was going on in relation to him in Eng- 
^ Carleton Letters, p. 380. 2 ji^j^^^^ p_ ^gg^ 

M 



i62 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

land. Among the State papers there has been preserved 
a single sheet, consisting of brief extracts of some letters 
from Naunton to the Duke of Buckingham [?] in this same 
month of August, 1619. Under date, August i, is the fol- 
lowing abstract : — ' Brewster frighted back into the Low 
Countries by the bishop's pursuivants. Sir Rob. Naunton 
will follow him with his letters to Sir Dudley Carleton.' 
Two days later Naunton writes again to the duke : — 
' Brewster's son, of his father's sect, within this half-year 
now comes to church. Sir Rob. Naunton hath received a 
note from him to his son, and committed the deliverer close 
until he discovers where the father is.' ^ From which 
broken hints we gather, that on Brewster's coming to 
London, not so much, as we know now, to escape the 
attentions of Sir Dudley Carleton, as to carry on negotia- 
tions with shipmasters and others in reference to a voyage 
to the West, he finds himself the object of hot pursuit on 
the part of the Bishop of London's pursuivants. Further, 
we gather that his son, still remaining in England, having 
quailed before the storm, has conformed and come to 
church, and that the messenger bringing a letter from 
father to son has been arrested and locked up close till he 
reveals Brewster's hiding-place, which, apparently, he has 
persistently refused to do. 

Meanwhile the English minister on the other side the 
sea was still eagerly in pursuit, and indeed, at one time, 
congratulated himself that he had secured the fugitive. 
He even sent word to Naunton that he had caught 
Brewster at last. But he was mistaken ; his stupid official 
had laid hold of the wrong man, had seized Brewer instead 
of Brewster. Brewer, however, being arrested, was detained, 
for it was discovered that he was quite as deeply impli- 
cated in the printing of the surreptitious books as Brewster 
himself. In September, Carleton writes : ' In my last I 
1 State Papers, Domestic. James I. Vol. ex. : Aug. 1619. 



WHERE LIES THE LAND? 163 

advertised your honour that Brewster was taken at Leyden, 
which proved an error, in that the scJioict [the baiUff] who 
was employed by the magistrates for his apprehension 
being a dull, drunken fellow, took one man for another. 
But Brewer, who set him on work, and being a man of 
means, bare the charge of his printing, is fast in the 
university's prison ; and his printing letters, which were 
found in his house, in a garret where he had hid them, and 
his books and papers, are all seized and sealed up. I 
expect to-morrow to receive his voluntary confession of 
such books as he hath caused to be printed by Brewster for 
this year and a half or two years past ; and then I intend 
to send some one expressly to visit his books and papers, 
and to examine him particularly touching Perth Assembly, 
the discourse De Rcgiinine, and other Puritan pamphlets 
which I have newly recovered.' ^ A few days later Carleton 
further informs Naunton that he had sent an advocate of 
Leyden, who understands English, to examine Brewer's 
books and papers, and, his answers not being satisfactory, 
he has used the Prince of Orange's authority, who has 
himself spoken to the rector of the university not to give 
the prisoner his liberty until the pleasure of the King of 
England is known concerning him. The rector has pro- 
mised this, although the whole company of the Brownists 
offer security for Brewer ; and he being a university man, 
the students are urged by the Brownists to plead privilege 
in the case where security is offered. Carleton requests 
that the rector and M. Brookhoven, the deputy of the town 
of Leyden in the Council of Holland, may know the king's 
pleasure as soon as possible, so as to prevent any disorder, 
which otherwise might arise out of this matter in that 
tumultuous town. Meantime M. Brookhoven, when he 
goes to Leyden next Monday for two or three days, will 
give orders to have Brewer further examined. 
^ Carleton Letters, p. 389. 

M 2 



i64 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

The matter proved not so easy to deal with as was 
expected. Brewer stood upon his rights, and showed Httle 
regard for the ambassador's authority. Moreover, it was a 
complicated case of combined jurisdiction between Town 
and Gown, Brewer having been arrested by the town 
escoulete, but detained as a university man in the university 
prison. Carleton feels he must move cautiously, and must 
work upon the curators and rector of the university before- 
hand ; and also upon the magistrates of the town, through 
their deputy Brookhoven. He will also seek private inter- 
views with the Prince of Orange. On the 22nd of October 
he reports progress. He has seen two of the curators of 
the university, the rector and his two assessors, and also 
the town deputy, who all came to him in one company. 
They were very polite, made large professions of due 
respect to the King of England, but could not follow up 
their fine words by sending Brewer to England as a 
prisoner, which was what Carleton asked them to do ; for, 
as a member of the university, Brewer might, they said, 
insist on his privilege of being tried without removal to 
another jurisdiction. Their university, consisting chiefly, 
as it did, of students from other countries, would be 
seriously injured if, in a matter of so much consequence, 
their privileges were not preserved ; in fact, the foreign 
students might leave in a body. Moreover, there was a 
precedent they could not forget. Some time ago a member 
of the university, one Cluverus, a German, had published a 
book against the Emperor Rudolph, and a demand was 
made that he should be sent to Prague to be punished. 
To this demand the university made absolute refusal, on 
the ground that it could not be granted without a breach 
of their privileges. In the face of such a precedent what 
could they do .^ On the other hand, Carleton pleaded that 
for as long a period as three years past Brewer had gone 
on printing prohibited books and pamphlets, not for the 



WHERE LIES THE LAND? 165 

university or the Dutch provinces, but to His Majesty's 
disservice and the trouble of his kingdom. 

In the midst of such complications Brewer himself, in 
the most chivalrous manner, came to the rescue of these 
belated diplomatists. To save the Leyden authorities from 
coming into open conflict with King James, which they 
were very unwilling to do. Brewer offered to go to England 
of his own accord, and submit to examination on certain 
conditions. The conditions were : that he should be assured 
in writing that it was His Majesty's pleasure that he should 
come; that he should go as a free man, and not as a 
prisoner ; that he should not be punished during his abode 
in England, either in body or goods ; that he should be 
allowed to return in competent time ; and, finally, that he 
should not be expected to make the journey at his own 
charges. His offer was accepted, and he prepared to go, 
though much against the will of John Robinson, his pastor, 
and his fellow-members in the Leyden Church. Carleton 
wrote to England, expressing the hope that Brewer would 
be well treated, inasmuch as he had taken his resolution of 
presenting himself unto His Majesty against the minds of 
some stififnecked men in Leyden, who did all they could 
to dissuade him from going. 

On the 3rd November, attended simply by the beadle 
and one other officer of the university. Brewer set out for 
Rotterdam, and was delivered to Sir William Zouch, who 
was travelling to England in a private capacity. The follow- 
ing day they set forward on their journey by way of Zealand, 
and on reaching Middleburgh the people there proved to 
be of the same mind as the brethren at Leyden, and were 
strongly opposed to Brewer placing himself in the power 
of the King of England. Sir William Zouch, wTiting to 
Carleton, says Brewer ' hath many friends in Middleboro, 
and those exceeding earnest in his cause, as, the treasurer- 
o-eneral, his brother the chief of the reckon-chamber, and 



1 66 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND. 

his other brother, a minister (their name is Teebake) ; and 
one Mr. Vosberg, chief reckon-master, who was on the way 
towards Holland to speak to his excellency on Mr. Brewer's 
behalf, and to have advised him to have challenged the 
privileges of the university and of the town, by which he 
would have had his trial there. I was, on Monday was 
seven-night, invited to dinner by them, when they did 
expostulate in the business.' 

In spite of remonstrance and expostulation, however, 
Thomas Brewer remained faithful to his compact with the 
English and Leyden authorities. On reaching Flushing, 
where they were to embark, they found the wind against 
them, as it remained for weeks, so that they were unable 
to cross to England. Fierce storms prevailed : ' No day,' 
writes Sir William, ' hath passed without a storm ; the 
streets run with salt water that hath scaled the walls, made 
pools and lakes, and kept the people within their doors.' 
During these weeks of waiting and wild tempests they seem 
not to have been without social enjoyment, for Carleton 
tells us, with smile and shrug of satisfaction, that Brewer's 
fellow-Brownists at Leyden are somewhat scandalised, 
because they hear that Sir William Zouch has taught him 
to drink healths. 

Some time about the beginning of December the two 
travellers reached London, where Brewer's guarantee of 
safe-conduct seems to have been duly respected. Whether 
his explanation of the work carried on in the printing- 
office in the Choorsteeg by Brewster and himself was 
satisfactory or not, the English Government were bound 
to observe the compact entered into by the English 
ambassador on their behalf. On the 29th January Sir 
Dudley Carleton acknowledges the receipt of a letter of 
the 14th, by way of Antwerp, from Secretary Naunton, 
and says he has acquainted the curators of the university 
with the good treatment Brewer has received in P^ngland — 



WHERE LIES THE LAND? 167 

far, indeed, beyond his deservings — and with his delivery, 
for which they render His Majesty their humble thanks. 
When he returns to Leyden, unless he undertakes to do 
his utmost to find out where Brewster is, he is not like to 
be at liberty long, the suspicion whereof, Carleton thinks, 
keeps him away from Holland, for as yet he appears not in 
those parts. 

We know nothing more of Brewer till the following June, 
when we hear of him in a letter from John Robinson to 
John Carver, in connection with the negotiations going on 
by way of preparation for the voyage to the West. He 
appears to have remained with Robinson and the rest of 
the Leyden Church after the sailing of the Mayflower for 
New England. It is stated that soon after John Robin- 
son's death — if we may so far anticipate our story — Brewer 
sold his property in Leyden and returned to England, 
where he came under the ban of the authorities for his 
separatist principles, and was cast into prison. All that we 
know of him afterwards we learn from the state papers and 
the journals of parliament. In 1626 James Martin gave 
information respecting Thomas Brewer and other Puritans 
and Brownists in Kent, in the course of which he tells the 
Government ' that Thomas Brewer, coming not long since 
from Amsterdam, where he became a perfect Brownist, and 
being a man of good estate, is a general patron of the 
Kentish Brownists, who by his means daily and danger- 
ously increase ; the said Brewer hath provided a most 
pestilent book beyond the seas. One Turner, of Sutton 
Valence in Kent, seems to be a chaplain of his, and preaches 
in houses, barns, and woods. He hath many followers, and 
is maintained principally by the said Thomas Brewer.' ^ 

The result was that this former colleague of Elder 
Brewster in Leyden, this zealous member of the brother- 

^ State Papers, Domestic. Charles I. Vol. xxxv., no: Sept. 17, 
1626. 



i68 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

hood to which the Pilgrim Fathers once belonged, became a 
prisoner for conscience' sake for the next fourteen years of 
his Hfe. He came forth from durance only when the Long 
Parliament had begun its memorable work, and Laud and 
Strafford had reached the end of their lease of power. In the 
Journal of the House of Commons.under date November 28, 
1640, there is this entry : ' The humble petition of Thomas 
Brewer, gentleman, close prisoner in the King's Bench, was 
read and referred to the Committee for Dr. Leighton's 
petition ; and he to have the same favour and privilege in 
all points as Dr. Leighton has.' The Journal of the House 
of Lords of the same da}' (iv. ico) gives further particulars : 
' The Earl of Dover reported to the House, " that the 
Lords' Committee appointed by this Honourable House 
have considered of the petition of Thomas Brewer, gentle- 
man, who hath been imprisoned in the King's Bench and 
•other prisons fourteen years, whereof five years close 
prisoner, and do desire that he might be released," where- 
upon it was ordered : " That the said Thomas Brewer shall 
forthwith be discharged of his imprisonment, giving his own 
word for his forthcoming and to abide their Lordships' 
■order." ' To show what a changed world had come about, 
the same day the Lords discharged Thomas Brewer, ' It 
was ordered by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the 
High Court of Parliament assembled: "That the Earl of 
Strafford should put in his answer unto this Court to the 
impeachment made against him by the House of Commons 
by Tuesday next come seven-night, viz., December 8, 1640, 
and sooner if he can." ' 

After this digression, which throws light on a matter 
which must have much exercised the minds of the Pilgrim 
Fathers in their Leyden days, we return to the consulta- 
tions of the Church as to their own movements. The 
thought which was gradually taking shape in their minds 
was that of founding a Puritan Colony, where they might 



WHERE LIES THE LAND? 169 

enjoy liberty of worship and at the same time remain 
Englishmen. The idea of founding a colony in the 
interests of religious freedom was not altogether new. It 
is curious to note a document among the State papers 
bearing date as far back as 1572, and endorsed by Lord 
Burleigh as 'sent from Thomas Cecil to me, written by 
Mr. Carleton,' which, after several military suggestions for 
the safety of the kingdom, proposes, as a peaceable way of 
settling the Puritan question, ' to suffer the precise sort to 
inhabit Ireland.' This contemporary document, which 
throws interesting light upon the strength of the Puritan 
movement at the time Separatism took its rise, runs as 
follows : ' This realm hath a great people daily increasing 
which are professors of the Gospel towards sincerity, and 
as they hate all heresy and popery, so they cannot be per- 
suaded to bear liking of the Queen's proceedings in religion 
by reason that our Church here is not reformed. This 
people consist of all degrees, from the nobility to the 
lowest, and so hot is the desire of God's truth in them 
that they will not frame themselves to favour any of the 
laws or ordinances set forth by the Queen in God's matters 
but such as are void of all offence and reformed according 
to sincerity. This people, as they do not like the course 
of our Church, so they do and will practise assemblies of 
brethren in all parts of this realm and have their own 
churches in companies, contrary to the proceedings which 
will and may offend Her Majesty, and yet not be punished 
for the same because they are the Queen's own bowels, her 
dearest subjects, servants of God, and such as do tread the 
straight path of the Lord's salvation. So that either the 
Church of England must be framed to their appetite, or 
else they must be suffered without blame to proceed as 
they begin.' 

There are three courses open, the writer says, whereby 
* to satisfy those griefs and relieve this people': (i) to 



lyo PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

allow as many of them as choose to depart the realm ; or, 
(2) to let them remain to congregate in companies together 
and have their own churches ; or, (3) * to bestow upon them 
a portion of the country of Ireland to inherit, and there, as 
concerning religion, to live according to the reformation of 
the best churches.' The first and second modes of dealing 
with this question are not to be thought of, for the first 
would weaken the realm, and as for the second, since our 
country is best governed by one king or queen, so both 
civil and ecclesiastical affairs ought to be directed by one 
course of law. But the third course he holds to be feasible. 
* English gentlemen of religion and value may be found to 
take this enterprise in hand, and in this way deliver this 
realm of all the precise ministers and greatest part of the 
people that follow them, to the number of three thousand 
men, enter Ireland, inhabit the same, and there live under 
the Queen's subjection according to the faith of good 
subjects and laws of this realm, the Church's constitution 
only excepted.' The part of Ireland he would select for 
the experiment is the north, * because the country of Ulster 
is the Irish piece of most danger to this State by reason it 
borders upon the Scot, the same is the soil in which I would 
have this people planted.' ^ 

This ingenious idea of getting rid of Puritans by shipping 
them off in a body to Ireland seems not to have caught 
hold of the imagination either of the Queen or the Lord 
Treasurer. Half a century later it was too late in the 
world's history to found a new settlement in any part of 
Europe. The Leyden Church must therefore go farther 
afield, and carry out such a migration as that of the Greeks 
to Massilia, or the Syrians to Carthage. Years before it 
took practical shape John Robinson, as the pastor of the 
Church, seems to have thought of some such migration, and 

^ State Papers, Domestic. Addenda. Elizabeth. Vol. xxi., 121 : 
1572. Discourse on the present state of the realm of England. 



WHERE LIES THE LAND? 171 

to have spoken of it to his Dutch neighbours. In the 
archives of the Presbyterian Church at Amsterdam there is 
a document, signed by Antonius Walaeus and Festus Hom- 
mius, theological professors at Leyden, stating that they had 
often heard Robinson say that, finding so many difficulties 
where they were, he had resolved his removal with a good 
part of his congregation to the West Indies, where he did 
not doubt to effectuate his design of founding a free 
religious settlement. Bradford, in his History, bears this 
out when he says that when they began to consult as to 
the place to which they should go if they did migrate, 
' some (and none of the meanest) had thoughts and were 
earnest for Guiana, or some of those fertile places in those 
hot climates.' Those in favour of Guiana having heard 
that Sir Walter Raleigh had in 1595 described it as the 
true Eldorado, and having evidently met with Robert 
Harcourt's relation of his voyage thither, published in 
1614, alleged that the country was rich, fruitful, and blessed 
with perpetual spring ; that vigorous nature brought forth 
all things in abundance and plenty without any great 
labour or art of man. It might be so, said others of the 
brethren, shaking their heads doubtfully, but tropical lands 
have dangerous diseases, and the dreadful Spaniard would 
be too near a neighbour. Half a century had scarcely 
gone by since the wholesale massacre of the Huguenots in 
Florida by the French, and the Spaniards might turn upon 
them in the same relentless fashion, and they would have 
but little strength to resist so potent an enemy. 

The project of proceeding to the West Indies being thus 
disposed of, Virginia was next thought of as a place of 
settlement. As early as 1606 some London merchants had 
received from King James a patent constituting them the 
Virginia Company. It consisted of two branches, com- 
monly spoken of as the London and Plymouth Companies. 
The former having its headquarters in London, and known 



172 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

as the Virginia Company, had jurisdiction from 34" to 38'' 
north latitude ; the latter, the Northern Company, having 
its seat of management in Plymouth, had jurisdiction from 
45° down to 41", the intervening territory between 38° and 
41° to go to whichever of the two companies should first 
plant a self-supporting colony. The Southern or Virginia 
Company was to be governed by a council resident in the 
colony, which was, however, to be under the control of a 
superior council established in England and nominated by 
the king. On this superior council, consisting of twenty- 
five persons, was Sir Ferdinando Gorges, a name for many 
years prominent in American history, and also Sir Edwin 
Sandys, a Scrooby friend of William Brewster, and in later 
days the ruling spirit of the Virginia Company. 

The first emigrants, one hundred and forty-three in 
number, sailed from the Downs on New Year's Day, 1607, 
but did not fix upon a spot for settlement till the following 
May. They were not, however, of the sort likely to prove 
successful colonists abroad, for most of them had been idle, 
thriftless failures at home. For the first two years of its 
history the settlement proved a sore discouragement, and 
in the plays of the day Virginia came to be described as 
the Transatlantic Alsatia, the last refuge of the destitute 
and dishonest. Two years later a change was made for 
the better, and 1609 has been described as the date of the 
real beginning of English colonisation. A new charter of 
incorporation was granted, doing away with the system of 
dual government, defining more accurately the extent 
of the plantation, and remodelling the constitution of the 
colony, so as to vest all legislative power in the council, 
and giving to the company full sovereignty over all British 
subjects settling in Virginia ; and that year five hundred 
new emigrants were sent out in a fleet of nine vessels. 
Unfortunately, these new-comers were no great improve- 
ment on the older settlers. Captain John Smith described 



WHERE LIES THE LAND? 173 

them as ' unruly gallants packed thither by their friends 
to escape ill destinies ;' and we hear of them in after years 
as spending their time in playing bowls in the streets of 
Jamestown while their houses were crumbling to pieces 
before their eyes. Governor succeeded to governor with 
varying fortunes and results until the year 1617, when 
Captain Argall was sent out, an able, resolute, but unscru- 
pulous man, whose care for the colony has been described 
as no better than the charity of the cannibal who feeds up 
his prisoner before making a meal of him. 

During Argall's administration the brethren in Leyden 
first began to think of negotiating with the Virginia Com- 
pany, and therefore before the more enlightened and public- 
spirited policy inaugurated by the appointment of Sir 
Edwin Sandys to the treasurership of the company. It 
was reasonably objected by some of the brethren that if 
they simply put themselves as ordinary settlers under the 
Virginia Company, they might as w^ell, so far as religious 
freedom was concerned, go back to England and take their 
chance of hardship and imprisonment there. Under a 
charter granted by King James conformity to the Church 
of England was insisted on as a matter of course, but even 
good churchmen might well wince under a regulation 
which required that, even upon working days, every man 
and woman duly twice a day, upon the first tolling of the 
bell, should repair unto the church to hear divine service, 
upon pain of losing his or her day's allowance for the first 
omission, for the second to be whipped, and for the third 
to be condemned to the galleys for six months. On Sun- 
days the penalty of neglect was still more severe : ' Every 
man or woman shall repair in the morning to divine service 
and sermons, and in the afternoon to divine service and 
catechisms upon pain for the first fault to lose their pro- 
vision and allowance for the whole week following ; for the 
second, to lose the said allowance, and also to be whipped ; 



174 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

and for the third, to suffer dcatJi' The clergy of the 
church were hedged round with double sanctity. Any 
colonist who should * unworthily demean himself unto any 
preacher or minister of God's Word,' or fail * to hold them 
in all reverent regard or dutiful entreaty ' should be openly 
whipped three times, and after each whipping should 
publicly acknowledge his crime. All new-comers were to 
report themselves on their arrival to the clergyman, to be 
instructed and catechised. Any one refusing was to be 
brought before the governor, who should cause the offender 
for the first time of refusal to be whipped ; for the second 
time, to be whipped twice, and to acknowledge his fault 
upon the Sabbath day before the congregation ; and for 
the third time, to be whipped every day until he made the 
same acknowledgment, asked forgiveness, and repaired 
unto the minister to be further instructed. Rather than 
repair to a colony where church arrangements were carried 
out with something like martial law, the brethren in Lcyden 
might as well go back to England and take their chance of 
Newgate, the Gatehouse, or the Fleet. 

But was not some other arrangement possible ? 

They resolved to try and arrange such terms with the 
Company as would allow them to live as a distinct body by 
themselves, and enjoy religious freedom under the general 
government of Virginia ; and they hoped that through the 
good offices of friends in England they might sue His 
Majesty that he would be pleased to grant them this free- 
dom they desired. They were encouraged to hope that 
they might succeed in this ' by some great persons of good 
rank and quality that were made their friends.' With these 
expectations, two of the brethren, Robert Cushman and 
John Carver, were sent over into England to negotiate with 
the Virginia Company. It was a favourable time for their 
purpose. For of late things had not been going very well 
with the colon}', and the company, anxious for emigrants 



WHERE LIES THE LAND? 175 

of their stamp and quality, were not unwilling- to come to 
terms, were even ready to grant them a patent with as ample 
privileges as it was in their power to give, and to render 
them all the assistance they could. Some of the leading 
members of the council went so far as to say that they had 
no doubt of obtaining their suit with the king for liberty 
in religion, and to have it confirmed under the king's broad 
seal in accordance with their desire. 

To facilitate this arrangement the brethren in Leyden 
made a formal statement of their religious opinions and 
practices, which might be submitted to the king and 
council. This they did in a series of ' seven articles which 
the church at Leyden sent to the council of England, to 
be considered of in respect of their judgments occasioned 
about their going to Virginia.' This document, which is 
of considerable interest historically, has been preserved 
among the Colonial State Papers, and is endorsed as sent 
unto the Council of England by the Brownists of Leyden.^ 
The Seven Articles are as follows : — 

1. To the confession of faith published in the name of 
the Church of England, and to every article thereof, we do 
with the Reformed Churches where we live, and also else- 
where, assent wholly. 

2. As we do acknowledge the doctrine of faith there 
taught, so do we the fruits and effects of the same doctrine 
to the begetting of saving faith in thousands in the land 
(conformists and reformists, as they are called), with whom 
also, as with our brethren, we do desire to keep spiritual 
communion in peace, and will practise on our parts all 
lawful things. 

3. The King's Majesty we acknowledge for supreme 
governor in his dominion in all causes and over all persons, 
and that none may decline or appeal from his authority or 

^ Colonial Papers. America and the West Indies, 1574-1660. 
Vol. i., 43. 



176 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

judgment in any cause whatsoever, but that in all things 
obedience is due unto him, either active, if the thing com- 
manded be not against God's Word, or passive, if it be, 
except pardon can be obtained. 

4. We judge it lawful for his Majesty to appoint bishops, 
civil overseers, or officers in authority under him, in the 
several provinces, dioceses, congregations or parishes, to 
oversee the churches and govern them civilly according 
to the laws of the land, unto whom they are in all things 
to give account, and by them to be ordered according to 
godliness. 

5. The authority of the present bishops in the land wc 
do acknowledge, so far forth as the same is indeed derived 
from his Majesty unto them and as they proceed in his 
name, whom we will also therein honour in all things and 
him in them. 

6. We believe that no synod, class, convocation, or 
assembly of ecclesiastical officers has any power or autho- 
rity at all, but as the same is by the magistrate given unto 
them. 

7. Lastly, we desire to give unto all superiors due honour, 
to preserve the unity of the Spirit with all that fear God, 
to have peace with all men what in us lieth, and wherein 
we are to be instructed by any. 

These Articles were signed by John Robinson as the 
pastor, and William Brewster as elder. They contain 
large concessions, but there are also careful qualifications. 
They accept the Articles of the Church- of England, but in 
the sense in which they are accepted by the Reformed 
Churches of the Continent ; they acknowledge obedience to 
the king's authority, but only ' if the thing commanded be 
not against God's Word ' ; as for the rest, it has been well 
said that we must look on these Seven Articles not so much 
as an exposition of faith, but as rather conditions of agree- 
ment. They were well received on the part of the council. 



WHERE LIES THE LAND? 177 

On the 1 2th of November, 1617, Sir Edwin Sandys writes 
to Robinson and Brewster, saying that they had given that 
good degree of satisfaction which had carried the council 
on with a resolution to set forward their desire in the best 
sort. Cushman and Carver having gone back to Leyden 
and given a report to the Church of their interview wnth the 
council, the Church acknowledged the courtesy with which 
their agents had been treated, and drew up a formal state- 
ment of their wishes in writing, which was subscribed, as 
the council requested, by the hands of the greatest part of 
the congregation. This statement was sent on to London by 
the hand of John Carver and one other gentleman of their 
company, and with it a letter dated December 15, 1617, 
and signed by Robinson and Brewster as before, setting 
forth certain reasons and inducements for the granting of 
their requests. These ' instances of inducement ' were of a 
tender and pathetic sort, and are as follows : — 

(i) We verily believe and trust the Lord is with us, 
unto whom and whose service we have given ourselves in 
many trials ; and that He will graciously prosper our 
endeavours according to the simplicity of our hearts therein. 
(2) We are well weaned from the delicate milk of our 
mother country, and enured to difficulties of a strange and 
hard land, which yet in a great part we have by patience 
overcome. (3) The people are for the body of them 
industrious and frugal, we think we may safely say, as any 
company of people in the world. (4) We are knit together 
as a body in a most strict and sacred bond and covenant 
of the Lord, of the violation whereof we make great 
conscience, and by virtue whereof we do hold ourselves 
straitly tied to all care of each other's good, and of the 
whole by every one, and so mutually. (5) Lastly, it is not 
with us as with other men whom small things can dis- 
courage, or small discontentments cause to wish themselves 
at home again.' They add that they are not likely to wish 

N 



178 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

to return ; most of them arc too old for that, and, indeed, if 
they did, it would be to be worse off than before. They 
are grateful for the godly disposition and loving towards 
their despised persons of many in the council, they will 
not be further troublesome, but take their leaves committing 
the council to the guidance and direction of Almighty God. 

It would appear that some members of the council of the 
Virginia Company desired further information. Three 
points especially were specified by Sir John Wolstenholme, 
one of the council, to whom they made reply, under date 
Leyden, January 27, 1617 [o.S.], enclosing two notes — a 
longer and a shorter, for him to show to the council — the 
one or the other as he thought best. In the shorter note 
they state that, as to the officers of the Church — pastors, 
elders, and deacons, and the sacraments, they do wholly 
and in all points agree with the French Reformed Churches, 
according to their public confession of faith. They further 
state that they are willing to take the Oath of Supremacy 
if it be required of them, and convenient satisfaction be not 
given by their taking the Oath of Allegiance. The longer 
note simply points out some trivial differences existing 
between them and the Reformed Churches, such as that 
they at Leyden prayed with uncovered heads, the French 
covered ; they required their elders to teach as well as to 
govern, the French did not ; their officers were chosen for 
life, those in the Reformed Churches for a term of years ; 
they administered discipline and excommunication before 
the whole Church, the French privately and in their 
consistories. 

This letter and the enclosures were carried to Sir John 
Wolstenholme by Sabin Staresmore, a member of the 
Leyden Church, who stood by while they were opened and 
read. Sir John asked further about the ministers, as to 
who made them ? Staresmore replied that the power of 
making was in the Church, to be ordained by the imposi- 



WHERE LIES THE LAND? 179 

tion of hands, by the fittest persons they had, adding that 
that power must cither be in the Church or in the Pope, 
and that the Pope was Antichrist. But, said Sir John, if 
the Pope holds what is true, as for example the doctrine of 
the Trinity, we do well to assent also ; but he would not 
argue the point. He said he would not show the letters, 
lest they should spoil all. He expected they would have 
been of the archbishop's mind as to the calling of ministers, 
but it seemed they were not. Their messenger further 
says that Sir John wished him to be at the Virginia Court 
the following Wednesday, after which he hoped to be able 
to report more definitely and certainly. 

It is curious to note that during the months in which 
these negotiations were going forward for permission to set 
up Congregationalism in one part of the territory of the 
Virginia Company, Presbyterianism had actually been 
established in another — in the Bermudas or Summer 
Islands — the shareholders of the one company being for 
the most part shareholders also of the other. Under date 
May 19, 1617, Lewis Hughes writes to Sir Nathaniel Rich, 
describing the arrangements made for religious worship. 
He says : 'The ceremonies are in no request, nor the Book 
of Common Prayer, I use it not at all. I have by the help 
of God begun a Church government by ministers and elders. 
I made bold to choose four elders for the town publicly 
by lifting up of hands and calling upon God, when the 
governor was out of the town, in the main. At his return 
it pleased God to move his heart to like well and to allow 
of that we had done, and doth give to the elders all the 
grace and countenance that he can.' He hopes God ' will 
give His blessing to this poor and weak beginning to His 
own glory,' and he trusts ' that the service of God in these 
islands may be so established now as that hereafter there 
be no such bitter contention about it as in England.' ^ 
1 MSS. of the Du/cc of Manchester, No. 209. 

N 2 



i8o riLCRlM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

A copy of the Directory of Worship for use in the 
Suinmer Islands was also sent over by him, and is preserved 
at Kimbolton Castle.^ He also wrote under date Decem- 
ber 15, 1618, to Sir Nathaniel Rich, L;"iving his reasons for 
not using the Book of Common Prayer, and his opinion of 
the elders who had been chosen to serve the Church.^ In 
trying to obtain permission for similar freedom of worship 
in Virginia the Congrcgationalists of Leyden secured the 
powerful influence of Sir Edwin Sandys, who prevailed 
upon Sir Robert Naunton to speak to the king privately, 
urging him to grant them this liberty of conscience under 
his gracious protection in America. While a\erse to Non- 
conformity in England, James seems not to have been 
equally averse to it as far away as Virginia. When 
Naunton said that these people would endeavour the 
advancement of his Majesty's dominions and the enlarge- 
ment of the Gospel by all due means, he replied that this 
was a good and honest motion, and asked what source of 
profit they looked for in the part they intended ? Naunton 
replied, ' Erom fishing.' ' So God have my soul,' said the 
king, ' 'tis an honest trade ; 'twas the apostles' own calling.' 
Thinking over the matter again, and fearing lest he had 
committed himself too hastily on what was a somewhat 
thorny ecclesiastical subject, the king afterwards told 
Naunton that these people had better confer with the 
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London.-' 
Winslow, after narrating this interview, adds: 'Whereupon 
we were advised to persist on his first approbation, and not 
to entangle ourselves with them.' He seems not to have 
been aware that the archbishop and other bishops were 
approached on the subject. Among the Kimbolton MSS. 
there is a note (No. ^GS) which was taken by Sir Nathaniel 

1 MSS.of the Did-c of Maitchcstc>\ No. 234. 

- Ibid., No. 239. 

'^ Winslow's Hypoo'tsy Unmasked, pp. 89, 90. 



ivji /■:/</■: LIES Tin-: land? iZi 

Rich of a conversation he had with Captain Bargrave about 
Sir Edwin Sandys. The purport is that Sir ICdwin had 
moved the archbishop ''unsuccessfully; to give leave to the 
Brownists and Separatists to go to Virginia, and designed 
to make a free popular state there, and himself and his 
assured friends to be the leaders. Bradford also says 
(p. 29; that the getting permission for the establishment of 
a colony in which they might enjoy religious freedom 
proved a harder piece of work than they took it for ; for 
though many means were used to bring it about, yet it 
could not be effected ; for there were divers of good worth 
laboured with the king to obtain it (amongst whom was 
one of his chief secretaries;, and some other wrought with 
the archbishop to give way thereunto ; but it proved all in 
vain. William Euring also, writing in 1619, says: 'Yet 
even for Virginia thus much, — when some of ours desired 
to have planted ourselves there with his Majesty's leave 
. . . the bishops did by all means oppose them and their 
friends therein.' ^ 

It was clear after all these negotiations that no formal 
grant of liberty of worship could be obtained from either 
king or bishop ; but reading between the lines it was equally 
clear that if these brethren went to Virginia as they 
proposed and conducted themselves peaceably, the king 
would connive at their proceedings and leave them un- 
molested. The leading men on the Virginia Company 
found it impossible to obtain for them public authority 
under the king's seal to set up religious freedom ; neverthe- 
less they advised them to go, feeling assured, they said, 
they would not be troubled. The agents having returned 
with this answer the Church at Leyden held conference on 
the matter. Some of the brethren were discouraged at the 
outlook. They did not like to unsettle themselves and 
venture their lives and fortunes on what might prove but a 
^ Hanbun's Memorials, p. 368. 



iS2 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW EXGLAXD. 

sandy foundation. They even thought it would have been 
better to go to Virginia without asking for Hberty than to 
ask and be thus rejected. The leaders, however, took a 
more hopeful view of the situation. They v.^ere of opinion 
that the king would look through his fingers, though he 
had reasons of his own for not confirming his goodwill by 
public act. Even if he granted permission under the 
Great Seal there might be no great security in that ; for if 
afterwards there should be a purpose to wrong them, 
though they had a seal as broad as a house floor, it would 
not serve their turn, for there would be means enough 
found to recall or reverse it. They were of opinion that 
there was reasonable probability to go upon, and that for 
the rest they must trust themselves to God's providence in 
this matter, as they had done in other things. 

They then laid the whole matter before the Lord afresh, 
arranging for a special day of humiliation, thanksgiving 
and prayer for the purpose. That day was solemnly 
observed, seeking Divine direction in the present position 
of affairs. John Robinson preached on the occasion, his 
text indicating clearly enough the bent of his mind. The 
verses he chose were i Sam. xxiii. 3, 4 : ' And David's 
men said unto him, Behold, we be afraid here in Judah; 
how much more then if we come to Keilah against the 
armies of the Philistines? Then David inquired of the 
Lord yet again. And the Lord answered him and said, 
Arise, go down to Keilah ; for I will deliver the Philistines 
into thine hand.' 

The sermon ended, and many of the brethren, having, 
one after another, wrestled with God in prayer, pleading 
as men do plead in great crises and hours of fate, they 
fell to needful arrangement of business. It was decided 
first, that only part of the Church should go, the rest 
remaining at Leyden ; that the youngest and strongest 
should lead the way, but that only those should go who 



WHERE LIES THE LAND? 183 

should freely offer themselves for the purpose. If a 
majority of the Church should elect to depart, the pastor 
should go with them, but if only a minority, then their 
tried and trusted friend Elder Brewster should be the 
Great Heart of their pilgrimage. It was further agreed 
that if the enterprise turned out a failure, those remaining 
behind should welcome back the returning voyagers to 
heart and home ; but if it were successful, those going forth 
should afterwards endeavour to help over such as were 
poor and ancient and willing to go. These were the 
decisions arrived at. Night had already closed in upon 
that short February day ere those prayers and conferences 
had reached their end. The stars were shining serenely 
over Leyden city as the brethren left their place of meeting 
in the Klok-steeg. A new world was opening before them ; 
new hopes and new fears were stirring within them. ' And 
He brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now towani 
heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them : 
and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he 
believed in the Lord ; and He counted it to him for 
righteousness.' 



1 84 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



VII. 

THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 

The decision of the Leyden brethren to seek a home in 
the Far West was arrived at in the face of a series of 
discouragements. To begin with, at the very time they 
were debating the matter tidings reached them of the 
disastrous ending of a project similar to their own. In 
1618 Francis Blackwell, an elder of the Amsterdam Church, 
had, with a party under his leadership, set sail for Virginia. 
Their means being limited their arrangements were defec- 
tive. A hundred and eighty were stowed away in a vessel 
far too small for their number. Even before they left 
Gravesend the streets rang with complaints at the miser- 
able arrangements made for them. Ill-starred from the 
first, nothing but disaster attended the expedition. North- 
west winds drove them out of their course to the south ; 
their fresh water failed ; crowded unhealthily together, 
disease broke out among them, carrying off the captain 
and six of the crew ; having no one left capable of managing 
the vessel, they drifted aimlessly to and fro, so that it was 
March, 16 19, before they reached Virginia ; when they did 
arrive Blackwell was dead as well as the captain, and 
altogether, out of one hundred and eighty who set out, one 
hundred and thirty perished by the way. Tidings of all 
this reached Leyden in the early summer, and w^ere not 
inspiriting to intending emigrants. 

Then, too, at the same time a serious crisis had arisen 
within the Virginia Company itself, which was divided into 
two hostile factions. The leaders on the one side, who 



THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 1S5 

supported Sir Thomas Smith, who had been treasurer of 
the company for the last twelve years, were the Earl of 
Warwick, Sir Nathaniel Rich, and Alderman Johnson ; on 
the other side were the Earl of Southampton, Lord 
Cavendish, and Sir Edward Sackville, who succeeded in 
making Sir Edwin Sandys treasurer, and displacing Sir 
Thomas Smith. ^ While this intestine war was raging in 
the board, nothing, of course, was done to further the 
Leyden expedition to the West. Meantime, while matters 
were thus at a standstill in one direction, negotiations were 
commenced in another. The Dutch traders to Manhattan 
proposed to Robinson to transport the entire congregation 
to this trading-post, afterwards known as New York, pre- 
viding cattle and furnishing protection as long as needed, 
and leaving the colony to self-government in all its internal 
affairs. On February 12, 1620, application was made to 
the Stadtholder, stating the conditions on which 'this 
English preacher at Leyden ' and his people would consent 
to colonise that country. Their main stipulation was that 
they should be assured of the protection of the United 
Provinces ; the Amsterdam merchants therefore prayed 
that such protection should be granted, and that two ships- 
of-war should be sent out to secure provisionally the lands 
to the Dutch Government. The matter thus referred to 
the States-General, after repeated deliberations, was rejected 
on April 11.^ But we gather from a letter from Robinson 
to Carver (June 14, 1620), that, on the persuasion of one 
Thomas Weston, he and his associates had broken off 
negotiations with the merchants even before the rejection 
of their overtures by the States-General. Who Weston 

^ The Colonial Papers (ii., 20, 22, &c.) represent in the main the 
case of Sir E. Sandys ; the MSS. in the Duke of Manchester's Collec- 
tion at Kimbolton Castle represent, but far more in detail, the case of 
Sir Thomas Smith. 

- Brodhead's History of New York, pp. 123-126. 



i£6 PILGRIM FATHERS OF AEIV ENGLAND. 

was we are not told, but it is probable he had sympathy 
with the Pilgrims in their religious opinions, for Bradford 
says he ' was well acquainted with some of them, and had 
been a furtherer of them in their former proceedings.' He 
came over to Leyden and offered to find the necessary 
funds, along with their own means, if the Manhattan idea 
were dismissed. With this view he associated with himself 
some seventy English merchants and others, who, as a 
mercantile speculation, were prepared to take stock in this 
emigration scheme at iJ"io a share, on the understanding 
that at the end of seven years there should be a division 
between the shareholders and the inhabitants of all the 
colony's possessions and earnings. On this understanding 
articles were signed by both parties, and Carver and 
Cushman were at once sent over into England to receive 
the money subscribed by the Merchant Adventurers, as 
Weston's associates came to be called, and to make provi- 
sion of shipping and all necessaries for the voyage. On 
their part also the brethren in Leyden who had arranged 
to emigrate prepared themselves with all speed, selling 
their goods and estates, putting their money into a common 
stock, and so making ready to depart when the word was 
given. 

In 1620 the Plymouth Company, which, according to 
the original charter, had jurisdiction from 45^ down to 41°, 
was revived. In its original form an ally of the Virginia 
Company, it now came to be a rival. The Merchant 
Adventurers, associated with the Pilgrims, thinking that 
New England with its fisheries might be a better field for 
their enterprise than Virginia, resolved to abandon the 
patent already obtained, and to get fresh powers from the 
Plymouth Company. Therefore, on February 12, 1620, 
the Wincob patent was superseded by one granted to 
John Pierce, one of the Adventurers, which conferred 
powers of self-government, and the right to a tract of land 



THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 1S7 

to be selected near the mouth of the Hudson by the 
planters themselves. 

In addition to the emigrants from Leyden the expedition 
was to be joined by a contingent from England, and one of 
their number, Christopher Martin, an Essex man, was 
joined with Carver and Cushman in carrying out the 
arrangements as their representative. It was against 
Robinson's advice that Cushman was set over this matter, 
for, in his opinion, though a good man and of some ability, 
he was unfit to deal for other men by reason of his singu- 
larity, and as a man more facile in talk than fruitful in 
service. Events proved Robinson to be right in his judg- 
ment, for Cushman, on his own responsibility and without 
consulting with the rest, consented to a fundamental altera- 
tion in the terms agreed upon, for the purpose of meeting 
the views of the Merchant Adventurers. The original 
agreement was for a seven years' partnership, during which 
the labour of all the colonists was to be for the common 
benefit, except that each colonist might reserve two days 
in the week for his own purposes. By his subsequent 
private agreement with the Adventurers Cushman sur- 
rendered this reservation, so that the whole of the labour 
of the colonists was to go to the common fund, and he 
further consented that at the end of seven years everything, 
houses, lands and goods, should be equally divided between 
the settlers and the Adventurers. When these terms were 
made known at Leyden the brethren complained that 
Cushman had made conditions more fit for thieves and 
bond-slaves than honest men. On the other hand, he de- 
fended himself against their ' many quirimonies and com- 
plaints ' by reminding them that it was one thing to settle 
matters among themselves at Leyden, and quite another to 
make terms with the other side in London. They had 
reckoned without their host. As to one of the clauses he 
had consented to alter, Sir George Farrer and his brother 



l88 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

had withdrawn £^oo from the scheme at the first sight of 
it, and if it had been insisted upon, the rest of the Adven- 
turers, except Mr. Weston, would have withdrawn also ; 
then where would they have been ? As to the effect they 
stated the other clause would have in preventing the 
building of good houses, there would be, he thought, no 
great harm in that. His opinion was that for the present, 
and till the colony was further advanced, they had better 
only build such kind of houses as, if need be, they might 
with little grief set afire and run away by the light ; that it 
would be better their riches should be not in pomp but in 
strength, for that a commonwealth is readier to ebb than 
to flow when once fine houses and gay clothes came up. If 
they had come to look upon him as the Jonas of the under- 
taking, he was quite willing to be cast off and left behind 
with nothing but the clothes upon his back. All that he 
asked for was that they might have quietness and no more of 
these clamours. Thus there was nothing for it but to yield 
the point and accept the terms, hard as they felt them 
to be. 

When all was ready for the start a pilot came over to 
conduct the emigrants to England, bringing also a letter 
/from Cushman, announcing that the Mayflower, a vessel of 
one hundred and eighty tons, Thomas Jones master, would 
start from London to Southampton in a week or two, bring- 
ing their English comrades to meet them in that port. 
Further, a sixty-ton pinnace, the Speedwell, had been bought 
for the Adventurers, and fitted out in Holland, which was 
to take the Leyden people to Southampton, and afterwards 
accompany the Mayflower across the Atlantic, remaining 
with the colony for a year. 

Thus, after much travail and many debates — recounted 
by Bradford, as he says, ' that their children may see with 
what difficulties their fathers wrestled in going through 
these things in their first beginnings, and how God brought 



THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 1S3 

them along notwithstanding all their weaknesses and in- 
firmities '■ — they were ready to set forth on their fateful 
voyage. Sore was the trial of parting between brethren who 
for so long had lived and laboured, sorrowed and rejoiced 
together. First, they joined in a day of solemn humiliation, 
when their pastor, John Robinson, preached the last sermon 
the departing Pilgrims were ever to hear from his lips. His 
text was the passage from the Book of Ezra (viii. 21) : * I 
proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava, that we might 
afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of Him a right way 
for us and for our little ones, and for all our substance ; ' 
upon which, says Bradford, ' he spent a good part of the 
day very profitably and suitable to the present occasion.' 
How suitable, Edward Winslow, writing twenty-six years 
later, gives us the opportunity of judging for ourselves. 
' At their departure from him to begin the great work of 
plantation in New England,' says Winslow, ' amongst other 
wholesome instructions and exhortations, he used these 
expressions, or to the same purpose : — 

' We are now ere long to part asunder, and the Lord 
knoweth whether ever he should live to see our faces 
again ; but whether the Lord had appointed it or not, he 
charged us before God and His blessed angels to follow 
him no further than he followed Christ. And if God 
should reveal anything to us by any other instrument of 
His, to be as ready to receive it as ever we were to receive 
any truth by his ministry. For he was very confident the 
Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of 
His holy Word. He took occasion also miserably to 
bewail the state and condition of the Reformed Churches, 
who were come to a period in religion and would go no 
further than the instruments of their Reformation. As for 
example the Lutherans, they could not be drawn to go 
beyond what Luther saw; for whatever part of God's will 
He had further imparted and revealed to Calvin, they will 



I go PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

rather die than embrace it. And so also, saith he, you see 
the Calvinists, they stick where he left them, a misery 
much to be lamented. For though they were precious 
shining lights in their times, yet God hath not revealed 
His whole will to them ; and were they now living, saith 
he, they would be as ready and willing to embrace further 
light as that they had received. Here also he put us in 
mind of our Church covenant (at least that part of it) 
whereby we promise and covenant with God and one with 
another to receive whatsoever light or truth shall be made 
known to us from His written Word. But withal exhorted 
us to take heed what we received for truth, and well to 
examine and compare and weigh it with other scriptures 
of truth, before we received it ; for, saith he, it is not 
possible the Christian world should come so lately out of 
such thick anti-Christian darkness, and that full perfection 
of knowledge should break forth at once. 

* Another thing he commended to us was, that we 
should use all means to avoid and shake off the name of 
" Brownist," being a mere nickname and brand to make 
religion odious and the professors of it to the Christian 
world. And to that end, said he, I should be glad if some 
godly ministers would go over with you, or come to you 
before my coming ; for, said he, there will be no difference 
between the unconformable ministers and you when they 
come to the practice of the ordinances out of the kingdom. 
And so advised us by all means to endeavour to close with 
the godly party of the kingdom of England, and rather to 
study union than division, viz. how near we might possibly 
without sin close with them, than in the least measure to 
affect division or separation from them. And be not loath 
to take another pastor or teacher, saith he, for the flock 
that hath two shepherds is not endangered, but secured by 
it. Many other things there were of great and weighty 
consequence which he commended to us ; but these things 



THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 191 

I thought good to relate, at the request of some well- 
willers to the peace and good agreement of the godly (so 
distracted at present about the settling of church-govern- 
ment in the kingdom of England), that so both sides may 
truly see what this poor despised Church of Christ now at 
New Plymouth in New England, but formerly at Leyden 
in Holland, was and is ; how far they were and still are 
from separation from the Churches of Christ, especially 
those that are Reformed.' ^ 

Bradford tells us that the rest of the time ' was spent in 
pouring out prayers to the Lord with great fervency 
mixed with abundance of tears.' Looking back also upon 
Winslow's narrative, - it would seem that a second day was 
spent in farewells before leaving the city. 

He says : ' When the ship was ready to carry us away, 
the brethren that stayed having again solemnly sought the 
Lord with us and for us, and we further engaging ourselves 
mutually as before, they, I say, that stayed at Leyden 
feasted us that were to go, at our pastor's house, being 
large, where we refreshed ourselves after our tears with 
singing of psalms, making joyful melody in our hearts as 
well as with the voice, there being many of the congregation 
very expert in music ; and, indeed, it was the sweetest 
melody that ever mine ears heard.' 

As the canal journey to Delfshaven would take from six 
to eight hours, the Pilgrims must have started early on that 
morning after the evening when, like showers and sunshine, 
these sorrowful tears and joyful melodies mingled together. 
The barges needed for the journey were most likely moored 
near the Nuns' Bridge which spans the Rapenburg im- 
mediately opposite the Klok-steeg, where Robinson's house 
was. This being their usual meeting-place would naturally 
be the place of rendezvous on the morning of departure. 

^ A Brief Narration. By Edward Winslow, 1646, pp. 98, 99. 
^ Pages 90, 91. 



192 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

From thence it was but a stone's throw to the boats, and 
quickly after starting they would enter the Vliet, as the 
section of the canal between Leyden and Delft is named,, 
and which for a little distance runs within the city bounds, 
its quays forming the streets. In those days the point 
where the canal leaves the city was guarded by a water- 
gate, which has long since been removed, as have also the 
town walls, the only remaining portions of which are the 
Morsch-gate and the Zyl-gate. So gliding along the quiet 
waters of the Vliet past the water-gate and looking up at 
the frowning turrets of the Cow-gate, ' they left that goodly 
and pleasant city which had been their resting-place near 
twelve years ; but they knew that they were Pilgrims, and 
looked not much on those things, but lift up their eyes 
to the heavens, their dearest country, and quieted their 
spirits.' 

It was a July day, and therefore summer was putting 
forth her quiet beauty as, accompanied by most of those 
who were to remain at Leyden, they sailed through the 
midst of the Dutch'pastures and by the country-seats and 
gardens which line both sides of the canal from Leyden to 
Delft. Nine miles from Leyden a branch canal connects 
the Vliet with the Hague, and immediately beyond their 
junction a sharp turn is made to the left as the canal 
passes beneath the Hoorn-bridge ; from this point, for the 
remaining five miles, the high road from the Hague to 
Delft, lined with noble trees, runs side by side with the 
canal. In our time the canal-boats make a circuit of the 
town to the right, but in those days the traffic went 
by canal through the heart of the city. The street formed 
by the banks on either side, and which is the fashionable 
quarter of residence, is called the Oud-Delft, and half-way 
through the city the travellers would pass the Old Kirk,, 
with its lancet windows and tall, slender, leaning tower, 
and directly opposite to this would note with even painful 



THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 193 

interest the plain two-storied edifice with its red-tiled roof, 
which was formerly the mansion of William the Silent, and 
where, on another July morning, six-and-thirty years before, 
to the grief of all true men, he was assassinated by Balthazar 
Gerard. Passing out of the gates of Delft and leaving the 
town behind, they had still a good ten miles of canal 
journey before them ere they reached their vessel and 
came to the final parting. For, as Mr. Van Pelt has clearly 
shown, it is a mistake to confound Delft with Delfshaven as 
the point of embarkation in the Speedwell,^ Below Delft 
the canal, which from Leyden thither is the Vliet, then 
becomes the Schie, and at the village of Overschie the 
travellers entered the Delfshaven Canal, which between 
perfectly straight dykes flows at a considerable height 
above the surrounding pastures. Then finally passing 
through one set of sluice gates after another the Pilgrims 
were lifted from the canal into a broad receptacle for 
vessels, then into the outer haven, and so to the side of the 
Speedwell as she lay at the quay waiting their arrival. 

At Delfshaven the party was joined by other friends 
from Leyden who had come by road, and also by some 
from Amsterdam who wished to share in the leave-taking, 
and there, says Winslow, they feasted us again. That last 
night on shore was spent with little sleep by most, but 
with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse and 
other real expressions of true Christian love. There is 
some uncertainty as to the scene of the final farewell, 
Bradford making it to take place on the deck of the vessel, 
and Winslow on shore — ' we only,' he says, that is the 
departing emigrants, ' going aboard.' They each wrote 
after an interval of more than a quarter of a century, when 
recollection on some points was growing hazy, Winslow 
touchingly tells us that ' after prayer performed by our 

^ The Start from Delfshaven. By the Rev. Daniel Van Pelt, 
A^. E. Mag., Nov. 1891. 

Q 



194 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

pastor, when a flood of tears was poured out, they accom- 
panied us to the ship, but were not able to speak one to 
another for the abundance of sorrow to part' We may 
well let Bradford also describe the scene for us in his own 
pathetic old-world way. He says : * The next day the 
wind being fair they went aboard, and their friends with 
them, when truly doleful was the sight of that sad and 
mournful parting : to see what sighs and sobs and prayers 
did sound amongst them, what tears did gush from every 
eye, and pithy speeches pierced each heart ; that sundry 
of the Dutch strangers that stood on the quay as spectators 
could not refrain from tears. Yet comfortable and sweet 
it was to see such lively and true expressions of dear and 
unfeigned love. But the tide (which stays for no man) 
calling them away that were thus loath to depart, their 
reverend pastor falling down on his knees (and they all 
with him), with watery cheeks commended them, with most 
fervent prayers, to the Lord and His blessing. And then 
with mutual embraces and many tears they took their 
leaves one of another ; which proved to be the last leave 
to many of them.' Winslow gives the final touch to this 
historic scene. As the Speedwell left the quay-side those 
on board fired a parting volley with their muskets, which was 
followed by the booming sound of shots from three of the 
ship's cannons, ' and so lifting up our hands to each other 
and our hearts for each other to the Lord our God, we 
departed, and found His presence with us, in the midst of 
our manifest straits He carried us through.' The memory 
of that time, he adds, the Dutch at Delfshaven preserve to 
this day. 

It was about July 22 that, with a fair wind, they 
hoisted sail and had a prosperous run to Southampton. 
The Mayflower had already preceded them from London, 
carrying the English portion of the emigrants, and was 
riding at anchor, if we may trust local tradition, off the 



THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 195 

north end of the West Quay. Those who joined them 
at Southampton were partly labourers employed by the 
merchants, and partly godly Englishmen who sympathised 
with their religious opinions. Here also they found Mr. 
Weston, who had come to represent the merchants. He 
was angry at the discussion which arose about the change 
in the terms of the contract, so much so, that he went off 
leaving the contract unsigned and the arrangements so 
incomplete that the emigrants were forced to sell some of 
their not too-abundant provisions to meet necessary charges. 
On August 3 they wrote to the Merchant Adventurers 
explaining their position, and stating the reasons why 
they could not consent to the alterations made in the 
5th and 9th articles of agreement. Still, as they had no 
wish to act selfishly in the matter, they were willing to 
agree that, if large profits were not realised within the 
seven years, the compact should continue for a longer 
period until further profits were made. They remind the 
Adventurers that they are in great straits, have had to sell 
some of their provisions to clear the haven, have scarce 
any butter, no oil, and not a sole to mend a shoe ; that 
they have not sufficient swords, muskets, or armour ; yet 
are they willing to expose themselves to such eminent 
dangers and trust to God's good providence, rather than 
that His name and truth should be evil spoken of through 
them. This document was signed by the leading men of 
the company. 

While the Mayflower still lay at anchor off the West 
Quay two letters arrived from Leyden from their pastor, 
John Robinson, bearing date July 27, one of which was 
addressed to John Carver, the other to the whole company, 
expressive of his care and affection for them. In the letter 
to Carver, who was his brother-in-law, he repeats the 
assurance of his intention to join them on the other side 
of the Atlantic the first opportunity that presents itself 

O 2 



1 96 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGL A ND. 

The other letter was addressed to the whole company, who 
were called together to hear it read. It was eminently 
characteristic of the man. He is with them, he says, in 
best affection and most earnest longing, though constrained 
for a while to be bodily absent. Constrained he is, for God 
knows how willingly he would have borne his part with 
them in this first brunt, were he not held back for the 
present by strong necessity. They must think of him as a 
man divided in himself with great pain, and as having his 
better part with them. 

He charges them first of all to seek heavenly peace with 
God and their own consciences by separation from sin ; for 
'sin being taken away by earnest repentance, and the 
pardon thereof from the Lord sealed up unto a man's con- 
science by His Spirit, great shall be his security and peace 
in all dangers ; sweet his comfort in all distresses, with 
happy deliverance from all evil, whether in life or in 
death.' Then, being at peace with God and their own 
consciences, he charges them to be at peace with all men 
as far as in them lieth, and not be too ready to take offence, 
for, as far as his experience goes, the people most ready to 
give offence are those who most easily take it, and those 
who nourish this touchy humour have seldom proved sound 
and profitable members of the community. He points 
out that there may be need of watchfulness, because the 
Englishmen joining them at Southampton are comparative 
strangers, and their living together, having all things 
common, may minister continual occasion of offence, and 
be as fuel to the fire, except they diligently quench it with 
brotherly forbearance. And if we are to be careful not to 
take offence at one another, much more must we not take 
offence at God Himself, which we do so often as we murmur 
at His providence in our crosses, or bear impatiently such 
afflictions as He is pleased to visit us with. He would 
have them also cultivate common care for the common 



THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 197 

weal, avoiding as a deadly plague all retiredness of mind 
for mere personal advantage. As men are careful not to 
have a new house shaken with violence till it be well-settled 
and the parts firmly knit, so he would have them be careful 
that the house of God, which they are and are to be, be not 
shaken with unnecessary novelties or other oppositions at 
the first settling thereof. Finally, as they are become a 
body politic, setting up civil government, and are not 
furnished with any persons of special eminency above the 
rest to be chosen as governors, he trusts they will let their 
wisdom and godliness appear not only in choosing such 
persons as do entirely love and will promote the common 
good, but also in yielding unto them all due honour and 
obedience when they are chosen, not beholding in them the 
ordinariness of their persons, but God's ordinance for good, 
not being like the foolish multitude, who more honour the 
gay coat than either the virtuous mind of the man or the 
glorious ordinance of the Lord. 

These and such-like things he commends to their care 
and conscience, joining therewith his daily incessant prayers 
unto the Lord that He who made the heavens and the 
earth, the sea and all rivers of waters, and whose provi- 
dence is over all His works, especially over all His dear 
children for good, may so guard and guide them in all their 
ways, inwardly by His Spirit and outwardly by the hand 
of His power, as that they all may have cause to praise 
Him all the days of their lives. 'Fare you well in Him in 
whom you trust and in whom I rest' — so ends his letter, 
and so sends he them forth, well-willing them 'happy 
success in their hopeful voyage.' 

This apostolic epistle, which ' had good acceptance with 
all and after- fruit with many,' having been read aloud, they 
then made final arrangements for the long voyage before 
them, choosing a governor and assistants for each vessel, 
and distributing the company as seemed best, ninety to 



198 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

the Mayflower and thirty to the Speedwell. Thus all 
being ready, on August 5, 1620, the two vessels dropped 
down Southampton Water, were soon past the cliffs 
of the Isle of Wight, and on into the English Channel. 
After this their progress was but slow. The delay at 
Southampton had lost them a favourable wind, and, what 
was worse, after beating about for three or four days, 
Reynolds, the captain of the Speedwell, reported that his 
vessel had sprung a dangerous leak, and they must put 
into Dartmouth for repairs. There she was overhauled 
from stem to stern, after which they put to sea again with 
good hopes that now all would go well. But these hopes 
also were doomed to early disappointment. The voyagers 
had only gone some three hundred miles beyond the Land's 
End when Reynolds again announced the Speedwell to be 
unseaworthy. She was still leaking, he said, and could 
only be kept afloat by the constant use of the pumps. 
Again there was nothing for it but to put back, and bear 
this time for Plymouth. Once there, it was finall)- deter- 
mined to send the Speedwell back to London to the 
Adventurers, and with her eighteen of the passengers who 
had grown faint-hearted, among them being Cushman and 
his family. The remaining twelve were added to the 
already overcrowded passengers in the Mayflower. Out 
of all this came great discouragement and another sad 
parting, and thus, as Bradford notes by the way, Mike 
Gideon's army this small number was divided, as if the 
Lord by this work of His providence thought these few 
too many for the great work He had to do.' 

At what date the returning ships arrived at Pl}-mouth, 
or how long they stayed, is not known. Naturally, they 
would be impatient to be gone, for the season was 
advancing, and they knew they would soon have winter 
upon them. They seem, however, after landing at the Old 
Barbican, to have sta}'ed long enough to receive hospitable 



THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 199 

kindness at the hands of the Plymouth people, of which 
they made grateful mention in after years. It was on the 
6th September they once more turned their prow to the 
west. The wind was prosperous, and continued so for 
several days. Till they were half-way over the Atlantic, 
indeed, everything seemed in their favour. Then their 
good fortune appeared to have left them. The equinoctial 
gales came sweeping down upon them with terrific force, 
shaking the Mayflower from stem to stern, and so twisting 
one of her main beams out of its place that even the 
mariners began to be alarmed for her safety. Some of the 
leading men among the passengers seeing this, and noticing 
that the captain and crew were in close and anxious con- 
sultation, raised the question as to whether it would not 
be better even yet to try to return. But it was as far to go 
back as to go forward, and the captain assured them that 
he knew the ship to be strong and firm under water, and 
if they could only get the wrenched beam back to its place, 
all would yet go well. Fortunately it turned out that one 
of the passengers had brought a powerful screw with him, 
and by means of this the beam was brought back to its 
place again, and then supported by a strong post set firm 
on the lower deck. After setting this right, and caulking 
the opening seams to keep out the water, they once more 
committed themselves to the will of God, and resolved to 
proceed. But their course was still arduous and trying. 
Storm succeeded storm, with winds so fierce and seas so 
high that for days together not a sail could be spread, and 
the vessel went driving before the gale under bare poles. 
Crowded below for safety, their bedding and their clothing 
drenched with sea-water, as huge waves chased each other 
day and night over the vessel, these poor fugitives in search 
of liberty must have longed earnestly for their desired 
haven. One of their number, John Howland, venturing 
above the gratings, was washed overboard in a moment, 



200 rJLuRlM FATJIKKS OF yEW ENGLAND. 

.uul h;ul it not hcc-n that \\c cau_!_;ht lu)U! i)f the coil i>l ihr 
li>psail-h.ilyarils, which, lortunatcK' for him, had been 
washed o\er and was traihni;" in the sea, he must have 
liciishcil. At some risk to the sailors, he was broui;ht up 
into the shiji .ii;ain, antl so was sa\ed. Thus ila)' after day 
fears came chasing each other o\er their hearts like the 
waves over their ship. Still, throuL;h Clod's i^^ood mercy, 
and in spite of close crowdini^ and all the hardships of the 
voyage, o\\\y one i.i'^ the passengers, a servant o{ Samuel 
Fuller, died by the way. Three days after his burial at 
sea, on the 9tli of November, and nine weeks after leaving 
riymouth Harbour, to the great joy of all, land was sighted. 
It was a Hat but well-wootlcd coast that rose to the view 
of the brightening faces of the Pilgrims. The captain said 
he thought it was the eastern side of the shore of Cape 
Cod. He would probably have been more ingenuous had 
he said at once that he knew it to be Cape Cod, ami that 
in fact he had been steering for it. Morton, in his JMetiiorial^ 
plainly says that as the Dutch intended to have a planta- 
tion themselves at INIanhattan, now known as New York, 
the)' had fraudulent!}- hired the captain oi the IMayilower 
to keep her away from that part of the coast. He says : 
' Oi this plot between the Dutch and Mr. Jones I have 
had late and certain intelligence.' This, however, was not 
suspected at the time, and the ship was headed round as if 
to make for the Hudson, but after trying for half a day 
they found themselves, as probably the captain intended 
they should, among the shoals and currents off the elbow 
of the cape. It was necessary therefore to make their wax- 
back as best they could into clear water before night came 
on. Then followed serious consultation. The southern 
passage was evidently dangerous, the season was late, and 
what was even worse, disease had begun to show itself 
among the passengers ; they therefore came to the conclu- 
sion that it would be better to abandon the journey to the 



TJIE SAILING 01' II IJ: MAYILOWIU'. 201 

Hudson, and sailing round the crook of the cape put into 
Cape Cod Harbour, keeping the ship there until, by nncans 
of the shallop, they found a suitable place of settlement in 
the neighbourhood. With a sense of relief they came to 
this decision, and finding themselves once more safe in 
harbour, Bradford tells us, they fell upon their knees and 
blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over 
the vast and furious ocean and delivered them from all its 
perils and miseries. 

liut now in these altered circumstances another question 
arose. The Virginia Company had no rights in New 
iCngland, and therefore their patent could confer none, and 
there was no other recognised authority there. Under these 
circumstances it was found there was danger of disorder 
arising. Some of the company, probably the hired labourers, 
were putting forth the idea that as there was an end of all 
authority, every man might go his own way and do as he 
liked. The leaders saw the peril of this, and resolved to 
guard against it. If there was no other government over 
them, either of king or company, they would make a govern- 
ment for themselves. They therefore called the adult 
males into the cabin of the Mayflower, and there entered 
into that memorable compact which became the basis of 
the constitution for the infant colony. The original docu- 
ment is no longer in existence, but the following is a copy 
with the list of signatures appended : — 

'In y- name of God, Amen. We whose names are 
underwritten, the loyall subjects of our dread soveraigne 
Lord, King James, by y- grace of God, of Great Britaine, 
F"ranc and Ireland King, defender of y'- faith, &c., haveing 
undertaken, for y- glorie of God and advanccmente of y"- 
Christian faith, and honour of our King and countric, a 
voyage to plant y- first colonie in y* Northerne parts of 
Virginia, doe by these presents solemnly and mutualy in y- 
presence of God, and of one another, covenant and combine 



-02 



jw/a;k/.u fa rni-:Ks of nfw fngland. 



oui- sfK'cs to_L;catl>cr inti> ;i ci\ill bod}- politick, for mir 
better ordering;- ami preservation and furtheranee of y^" ends 
aforesaid ; antl b)' vertiie hearof to cnactc, constitute and 
hanie such just and cquall lawes, ordinances, acts, consti- 
Uitions and offices from time to time, as shall be thought 
most nieete anil coineniont for y generall good of >"" 
Colonie, unto which we promise all due submission and 
obedience. In Witnes wherof we have hereunder subscribed 
our names at Cap-CotUl \ '■ 1 1 of November, in y^ year of 
y'-' raigne of owv soveraigne lord, King James of England, 
l-'rance and Ireland y^' eighteenth, antl of Scotland y-' fiftie- 
fourth, Ano. Dom. 1620.' 



John Carvkr. 
William I^radkoro. v 

1""1>WAR1> WiNSLOW. 
Wll I lAM BrEWSTKR.' 

Isaac Allertox. 
Myles Standisii. 

JOllX Al.DEN. 

Samuel Fuller. 
CiiRiSToriiER Martin. 
William Mullins. 

WlLl lAM WlIlTK. 

Richard Warren. 
John Howland. 
Sththen Hopkins. 

EmVARO TlLLEY. 

John Tillev. 
Francis Cook. 
Thomas Rogers. 
Tiio^L\s Tinker. 
John Rigdale. 
Edward Fuller. 



John Turner. 
I'^RANCis Eaton. 
jA^u-;s Ciiu.TOX. 
John Crackston. 
John Billington. 
Moses Fletcher. 
John Goodman. 
Degorv I'riest. 
Thomas Williams. 
Gilbert Win slow. 
1'j:)Mund ]\Iarc.eson. 
Peter BrownV 
Richard Britteridge. 
George Soule. 
Richard Clarke. 
Richard Gardiner. 
John Allerton. 
Thomas English. 
Edward Dotev. 
Edward Lister. 



Bradford preserved the text of this compact in his 



THE SAILING 01- I HE MAYILOWEi:. 203 

History, without giving the names of the signatories ; these 
were furnished by Morton in his Mamurial, apparently 
from some list in liradford's papers to which he had access. 
I.ooking over these names, it may be noted that, in addition 
to captain and crew, 102 passengers in all left Plymouth, 
one died by the way, and a child was born, receiving from 
his birth-place the name of Oceanus Hopkins, so that they 
were still 102 when they reached their destination — seventy- 
three males and twenty-nine females. Of these the colony 
proper consisted of thirty-four adult males, eighteen of 
v/hom were accompanied by their wives and fourteen by 
children under twenty-one years of age, twenty boys and 
eight girls. Besides these there were nineteen men-servants 
and three maid-servants, sailors and craftsmen hired for 
temporary service. Of the thirty-four men who were the 
nucleus of the colony the great majority were from Lcyden, 
only four of their number being certainly known to have 
joined them at Southampton, It may also be mentioned 
in advance that the last surviving signer of the far-famed 
compact was John Alden, who died in 1686 at the age of 
eighty-seven, and that of the passengers the one who lived 
longest was Mary, the daughter of Isaac Allerton, who 
died as late as 1699, at the age of ninety. 

We shall best take in the whole situation if we remember 
that the compact was signed on November 1 1 <'o.s,) ; that 
by this time the Mayflower had rounded the cape and 
found shelter in the quiet harbour within the crook on 
which now lies the village of Province Town, and that 
probably on the same day they chose John Carver as 
%<j\-Q.xnQX for the ensuing year. Here the vessel tarried at 
anchor while three explorations v/ere made before the 
final settlement at Plymouth- They naturally looked 
round them with some curiosity at the new world in which 
they found themselves. The harbour itself was one in 
v.'hich a thousand sail of ships might safely ride, and the 



204 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

land, down even to the sea margin, was covered with oak 
trees, pines, juniper, sassafras, and other aromatic shrubs. 
Vast flocks of wild-fowl had come in for the winter, such 
numbers they had never seen before, and in various parts 
of the bay whales were seen spouting, making the sailors 
wish they had their harpoons with them, for then they 
could soon have taken three or four thousand pounds* 
worth of oil. But the main question was as to the fitness of 
the land for permanent settlement ; and for the purpose of 
ascertaining this, the same Saturday sixteen well-armed 
men went on shore to explore, and others to procure fire- 
wood. They reported on their return that the land con- 
sisted of hills of sand, reminding them of the dunes of 
Holland, and that the woods were like a grove or park, 
being free from underwood. The next day being Sunday 
they quietly rested, and had Sabbath worship, joining in 
spirit with those they had left behind in what was now a 
far-off land, and expressing their thankful praise to Him 
who had brought them safely through so many dangers of 
the deep. 

With the next day came the necessity for decisive action. 
Jones, the captain of the Mayflower, was impatient to take 
his ship back to England, afraid lest his provisions might 
run out. Moreover, he refused to allow his vessel to cruise 
about in search of the best abiding-place. They must find 
that for themselves, and he would then sail to their chosen 
settlement and put them ashore. The thing now to do, 
therefore, at once was to explore the coast in the shallop, a 
little craft of from twelve to fifteen tons, which they had 
brought with them between decks, taking it to pieces for 
convenience of stowage. It was expected that the car- 
penters would be able to make it seaworthy in a very few 
days ; but all the parts had been so strained on the voyage 
that it took weeks instead of days to put it to rights. 
Meantime, several of the men, growing impatient resolved 



THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 205 

to make the first exploration on land without it. Their 
readiness was admired, but the danger being great, their 
expedition was rather permitted than approved. Sixteen 
men were then told off, equipped with musket, sword, and 
corslet, and placed under the command of Captain Miles 
Standish, the one man of the company who had seen 
military service in the Netherlands, unto whom was 
adjudged for counsel and advice, William Bradford, 
Stephen Hopkins and Edward Tilley. 

On Wednesday, November 15 [25], they set forth along 
the shore, and saw six Indians and a dog coming towards 
them, who at their approach fled into the woods. They 
followed the trail of these men for ten miles, hoping to 
open communication with them, but night coming on, they 
built a barricade of logs, kindled a fire, and fixed their 
sentries. Next day they continued their exploration, 
forcing their way up hill and down through dense thickets 
which tore their very armour apart. About the middle of 
the forenoon they came upon deer, deer-paths, and abun- 
dant and excellent springs of water. Then, turning to the 
inner shore, they reached a point on the great circle of the 
harbour only four miles across the water from the anchorage 
of the Mayflower. Here, according to previous agreement, 
they kindled a fire, to assure those on board of their safety. 
Subsequently they came upon a clearing of land where 
the Indians had formerly sown corn, found some Indian 
graves, and, further on, stubble of this year's corn, the 
remains of a house and a great iron kettle, which some 
ship's crew had left behind them. What was more to the 
purpose, under some heaps of sand they came upon ' divers 
fair Indian baskets filled with corn, and some in ears fair 
and good, of divers colours, which seemed to them a very 
goodly sight.' With some of this, burying the rest again, 
they made their way back to the ship, 'and so, like the 
men from Eshcol, carried with them of the fruits of the 



2o6 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

land and showed their brethren ; of which and their return 
they were marvellously glad and their hearts encouraged.' 

The shallop being ready at length, a body of twenty-four 
men set out in this and the long boat, accompanied by Jones 
and some of the crew, on the second exploration. This 
was on Monday, November 27 (O.S.), December 7 (N.S.). 
As this was an expedition by water Jones was made leader 
instead of Standish. They encountered heavy seas with 
head winds, and wading ashore were met with blinding 
snow-storms. So extreme was the cold and so severe their 
sufferings that of some of those who died later, Bradford 
says they ' took the original of their death here.' On the 
following Thursday they were back in the Mayflower. 
They had found some interesting relics of a French fishing- 
ship wrecked on Cape Cod four years ago, some Indian 
wigwams and divers articles of more or less value, but no 
place of settlement. The Pamet region they had explored 
had a good harbour for boats, and corn-land, fish and 
whales also abounded along the shore, but there was no 
harbour for ships and no supply of fresh water. If they 
settled here, they would soon have to change again. This 
was not to be their home. While they had been away 
Peregrine White, the first English child born in New 
England, saw the light on board the Mayflower. 

On Wednesday, December 6 [16] ten of their principal 
men selected from volunteers set forth in the shallop on the 
third and last exploration, taking with them three of the 
seamen, together with the mate and pilot, Clarke and Coppin, 
their object being a thorough survey of the bay. Some 
stayed on board the shallop, while the others explored the 
land, as far as possible keeping sight of their comrades in 
the boat. After coasting along the inner side of the cape 
for about twenty miles they sailed up Wellfleet Bay, but 
finding it unsuitable for their purpose turned about to the 
south. On the third morning the land party were attacked 



THE SAILING OF THE MAYFLOWER. 207 

by Indians, a shower of arrows bcin^ poured in upon them 
as they breakfasted by their bivouac. Happily no one was 
seriously injured, and a few musket shots were sufficient to 
scatter their assailants. After a prayer of thanksgiving for 
their deliverance they named the spot ' the First Encounter,' 
Then standing away before an easterly and southerly wind 
they intended to reconnoitre the shore farther round the 
bay. After some hours they were driven by snow-storms 
and rough seas till at nightfall they were fain to find them- 
selves in a sheltered position between what is now known 
as Clark's Island and Saquish Head, then also an island. 
Afraid to land in the darkness for fear of the Indians, yet 
wet through with the storm, some of the more venturesome 
at length went on to Clark's Island, so called ever after 
because Clark, the mate, was the first man to step ashore, 
and there they kindled a fire in the rain ; the rest of the 
party about midnight being driven by the freezing tempera- 
ture to join them. Such was the first cheerless entry of 
the Pilgrims to this part of Plymouth Harbour, The next 
day was Saturday, which they spent in repairing the shallop, 
which had been roughly used by the storm, and then this 
being, as their historian says, ' the last day of the week, 
they prepared there to keep the Sabbath.' Morton's journal 
quietly says, ' On the Sabbath day we rested ; ' spending 
much of it in worship, no doubt, as their Sabbaths were 
wont to be spent. 

Monday, December 11 [x.s. 21], 'they sounded the 
harbour, and found it fit for shipping ; and marched into 
the land and found divers corn-fields and little running 
brooks, — a place (as they supposed) fit for situation ; at 
least it was the best they could find,' This then was the 
technical landing of the Pilgrims, and here setting foot 
upon Plymouth Rock they had at length reached their 
long-sought resting-place, 
3Ieantime the people in the Mayflov/er, lying at anchor 



2o8 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

five-and-twenty miles away, looked out anxiously for the 
return of the men in the shallop. For one of these thus 
returning the welcome back was dashed with tears. 
William Bradford learnt to his sorrow that while he had 
been away his wife — the Dorothy May, of Wisbech, he had 
married at Amsterdam seven years before — had fallen 
overboard and was drowned. So chequered with chance 
and change at every step was the Pilgrims' course. So had 
the strong man to bow himself, and still go forward. Within 
a day or two more the Mayflower herself was in the harbour 
of Plymouth Bay, battered and beaten by storm"" and 
tempest, but her work gallantly accomplished, and her 
people safe in the possession of freedom in their New 
England home. 



( 209 ) 



VIII. 
PLYMOUTH PLANTATION. 

These wanderers from the Old World to the New had 
found settlement at last, but under such stern conditions as 
to prove that William Brewster was right when he said, ' It 
is not with us as with men whom small things can dis- 
courage, or small discontentments cause to wish themselves 
at home again.' When they left Leyden, they hoped to 
reach their destination in time to be able to erect needful 
dwellings before winter set in. But the delays occasioned 
by the condition and return of the Speedwell, and by 
Atlantic storms, had had the effect of throwing them home- 
less on the bleak New England coast in the very depth of 
winter. Their houses had yet to be built at the very time 
that shelter was needed most. 

It is not the manner of brave men, however, to waste time 
in vain regrets. The first thing to be determined was the 
best position for the settlement, a point which they felt 
should be decided by the whole body of emigrants. On 
Monday, December 28 (N.S.), therefore, the men of the 
company proceeded by way of the woods to reconnoitre 
the region round Plymouth previously approved by the 
exploring party. For further satisfaction they also next 
day journeyed some miles to the north, in the direction of 
what is now known as Kingston, after which it was agreed 
to seek Divine guidance and decide the matter by vote. 
* The conclusion by most voices was to set on the mainland 
on the first place,' that is, at Plymouth, as first recom- 
mended by the pioneers. 

P 



210 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

This important point being settled, some twenty of the 
party began that same afternoon to build barricades, 
resolving to spend the night on shore. The others were to 
return to the vessel, coming back next morning with food 
for their companions, and to join them in their building 
operations. But that night one of the wildest of tempests 
burst in fury over sea and land. It needed all the three 
anchors of the Mayflower to enable her to stand the strain 
of the storm ; and the unfortunate shore party, without a 
roof to shelter them, had to spend that long and weary 
night in torrents of rain, drenched to the skin. Moreover, 
the storm still continuing, it was far on in the next day 
before the shallop was able to bring them food from the 
ship. 

But the storm abating at length, the work of building 
began in earnest, all who were able going ashore to fell and 
carry timber, returning at night to the vessel to sleep, and 
leaving a guard of about twenty men on shore. These 
remained over the Sunday, in the course of which they 
were alarmed by an outcry of unseen Indians, against 
whom, therefore, it behoved them to be on their guard. 
According to Old Style, Monday was Christmas Day, but, 
as their journal reports, *no man rested all that day.' 
Working with a will, they proceeded to erect a common 
house some twenty feet square, intended for general use till 
all had houses of their own, and to serve as a place of 
meeting afterwards. In four days the timber work was 
up and the roof half thatched, when the scare of the 
Sunday led them to erect a platform on the hill, on which 
to plant cannon from the ship, in case of a further surprise 
from the Indians. They then divided the whole company 
into nineteen families, assigning the single men to the 
different households, so as to require for the present as few 
houses as possible. It was arranged that each family 
should build its own house, having a plot of land three rods 



PL YMO UTH PLA NT A TION. 2 1 1 

long and half a rod broad for each of its members, the 
homesteads to be staked out after the choice of position 
had been determined by lot. These houses were to be 
built so as to form a single street parallel with the stream, 
now known as the Townbrook, and with land for each 
family on each side. This street, since 1823 called Leyden 
Street, still leads up from Plymouth Rock and from the 
beach to the hill beyond. 

It was well that the building went on apace, for before 
many days were past there was sore need of houses in 
which to shelter the sick and the dying. The stern severity 
and exposure of that winter time, joined to hard toil and 
poor fare, after close and unhealthy crowding on ship-board, 
began seriously to tell on the condition of the community. 
In January and February they died sometimes at the rate 
of two or three a day. It seemed as if the whole colony 
would be swept away, for at one time there were only 
six or seven at all able to attend upon the sick and 
discharge the necessary offices of life. Bradford, who was 
one of those laid prostrate, speaks especially with grateful 
affection of William BrevvSter and Miles Standish, as those 
who, in the general calamity, never succumbed, and who 
were unceasing in their loving care for the stricken in 
their sick and low condition. 'What,' says he, 'I have 
said of these, I may say of many others who died in the 
general visitation, and others yet living, that, whilst they 
had health, yea, or any strength continuing, they were not 
wanting to any that had need of them.' The first house 
finished had to be used as a hospital for the sick, and 
by the end of February thirty-one of these had died, the 
mortality still continuing. The eminence above the beach, 
now known as Coles Hill, was set apart for the burial-place 
of the dead, the graves being levelled and grassed over, lest 
the Indians should discover how few and weak the settlers 
were becoming. Of the hundred who, less than three 

p 2 



212 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

months before, had reached the shores of New England, 
only about fifty survived. It seemed, indeed, as if this heroic 
enterprise of theirs would turn out, after all, to be only one 
failure more ; but happily, about the middle of March, the 
turning-point was reached, and the mortality began to 
abate. There is something pathetic in the entry in their 
journal which tells us that at this time the sun began to be 
warm about noon, and that the birds sang in the woods 
most pleasantly. It is but a gleam, but it shows that with 
the return of spring there was a return of life and hope to 
weary hearts, now that their long winter was over and gone. 

Strangers in a strange land, the diminished settlers were 
naturally haunted by vague anxieties as to the sort of 
neighbours they might have. Wolves had been heard 
howling in the woods at night and had been seen prowling 
by day ; but wolves were not so much to be dreaded as 
Indians intent on surprise and massacre. The shower of 
arrows from their bows at the place named First Encounter 
was not reassuring, and there were not wanting signs of 
them here at Plymouth. In a hunting excursion the 
captain found a dead deer, from which they had cut off the 
horns ; a week later one of the colonists saw twelve Indians 
pass by his hiding-place, as if making for the plantation ; 
tools left in the wood by Standish and Cooke had been 
carried off, and two Indians had been seen on the hill on 
the other side of the Townbrook, who suddenly disappeared 
when Standish and Hopkins tried to come to parley with 
them. It was clear the utmost precaution must be 
exercised ; it was agreed therefore that in addition to the 
civil government a military organisation should be 
established, to be under the command of Miles Standish, 
and that the five cannon brought ashore from the May- 
flower should be so placed on the Fort Hill platform as to 
command the approaches to the village on every side. 

After-events, however, soon showed that their fears were 



PL YMO UTH PL A NT A TION. 2 1 3 

groundless. One morning towards the end of March a 
solitary Indian walked down the main street and came 
towards them. Save for the fringed leathern girdle about 
his loins, he was naked, had straight black hair, short in 
front and long behind, with no beard, and his only weapons 
were a bow and two arrows, one of which was headless. 
Of a good presence, he advanced boldly, and to their 
surprise, addressing them in English, bade them welcome. 
He made as if he would enter the common house, but 
fearing he might be a spy, they kept him outside till they 
had learnt more about him. In broken English he then 
told them that his name was Samoset, that he did not 
belong to that neighbourhood, but was the sachem or chief 
of Monhegan, an island on the coast between the Kennebec 
and Penobscot rivers, where from the men on the fishing 
vessels he had learnt what English he knew. A year ago 
he had come to Cape Cod with Captain Dermer, and had 
simply remained eight months on a visit. He further 
informed them that the Indian name of the place where 
they were was Patuxet, or the ' little bay,' that nearly four 
years ago the original inhabitants had all been swept away 
by a plague, so that there was no one left to dispute the 
possession of the place with the new-comers. Their nearest 
neighbours to the west, he said, were Massasoit's people, a 
tribe numbering some sixty warriors, while those to the east 
were the Nansets, the people who had made the attack upon 
them when they were exploring the bay. After volunteering 
this interesting information, their unexpected visitor stayed 
the night, and next day left for the Wampanoags, saying 
that he would soon return with some of them, bringing 
beaver skins, a fur till then unknown to the English. 

Samoset was as good as his word. Next day he returned, 
bringing with him five tall, powerfully-built Indians. Their 
faces were painted, some with a black band five fingers 
broad from forehead to chin, others striped and coloured 



214 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

in various styles. Each had a deerskin hung on his shoulder, 
and long hose of dressed deerskin extending upwards and 
meeting at a leathern§girdle ; and each had the hair short 
in front, but behind reaching down to the shoulders. As a 
sign of peace, they left their bows and arrows a quarter of a 
mile from the town and brought back the tools taken in the 
woods a month before. Being hospitably entertained, they 
offered to repay their Puritan hosts with an exhibition of 
Indian song and dance, which, as it was the Sabbath day, 
would have been a curious contrast to their Sabbath service. 
They offered also beaver skins for sale ; but as the Pilgrims 
declined all trade as well as Indian war-song and dance on 
Sundays, they left what stock they had with them and 
promised to bring more some other day. Their main 
object, however, was to prepare the way for a visit from the 
great sachem Massasoit himself. 

The following Thursday Samoset reappeared, bringing 
with him another Indian, who proved to be an invaluable 
friend to the settlers. This was Tisquantum, or Squanto, 
as he came to be called, the only man left of the Patuxet 
tribe once living at Plymouth. Fact would indeed seem 
stranger than fiction, when the colonists found that this last 
of the Patuxets had lived more than three years in London, 
and knew London streets better than most of themselves. 
The fact was he was one of four-and-twenty Indians whom 
Thomas Hunt had kidnapped on board ship in 1614 to sell 
as slaves in Spain. Contriving to escape, and making his 
way to England, he entered the service of Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges, and afterwards that of a London merchant who 
was treasurer of the Newfoundland Company. Then, some 
six months before the landing of the Pilgrims, Captain 
Dermer had brought him back to Plymouth, where he 
found himself, as we have seen, the sole survivor of the 
tribe to which he belonged. He now, along with Samoset, 
came on in advance, to announce that Massasoit, the grand 



PLYMOUTH PLANTATION. 215 

sachem of the confederate tribes of Pokanoket, was at hand 
with his warriors. 

The colonists felt at once that much might depend on 
the approaching interview. If friendly relations could be 
established with this great chief, peace might be secured 
with all the tribes from Narragansett Bay to the end of 
Cape Cod ; even the fierce Nansets, with whom they had 
.already been in conflict, might become their allies. 
Expectation was on tiptoe ; within the space of an hour 
Massasoit with his sixty braves appeared on the hill south 
of the Townbrook, and Tisquantum came on, with a request 
that a messenger might be sent over to confer with the 
chief It was perhaps a perilous venture, but Edward 
Winslow at once volunteered the service. Wearing armour 
and bearing side-arms, he descended to the ford of the 
stream, and ascending the slope of what is now known as 
Watson's Hill, he disappeared from the sight of his friends 
into the midst of the crowd of Indians who formed the 
body-guard of the chief 

Presenting certain gifts, meant to propitiate, Winslow 
found himself the central object of interest, Massasoit 
examining his sword and armour with lively curiosity, and 
offering to buy them. Winslow, on his part, assured him 
that their sovereign, King James, saluted him with peace 
and good-will, desiring him for his ally ; and also that their 
own governor, whom he had just left, desired to see him^ 
that he might confirm a peace with him, and open a trade 
for their mutual benefit. Massasoit expressed himself 
gratified with the interview ; therefore leaving Winslow 
behind as a hostage, and taking with him a body-guard of 
some twenty armed warriors, he started for the village. 
To receive him with due honour, Standish and Allerton, 
with six musketeers, went down to the stream, and as the 
Indian chief crossed the ford gave him a military salute, 
escorting him afterwards to the town house,, where he was 



2 1 6 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGL A ND. 

received with such modest state of carpets and cushions as 
they could muster from their scanty stores. Governor 
Carver, attended with body-guard of musketeers, met their 
distinguished guest with courtly salutations, after which 
they ate and drank together. The chief, a man in the 
prime of life, of grave manner and few words, presented 
much the same appearance as his attendants, save that he 
was distinguished by a great necklace of white bone beads, 
and that he carried in his bosom a long knife suspended by 
a cord. His face was painted a dull red, while those of his 
attendants were painted some black, some red, and others 
yellow or white, laid on in crosses or curious figures. Some 
were clad in the skins of wild animals, others were naked ; 
all were tall and powerfully built. 

Courtesies being ended, business began ; a treaty 
offensive and defensive being entered into by which each 
side bound itself to refrain from injuring the other, in the 
event of war to render aid, and in case of conference to 
come unarmed to the interview. Thus, in a spirit of 
independence, and in the exercise of sovereign power, the 
colony made its first foreign treaty and entered into its 
first alliance. It was a good beginning, for the treaty thus 
made stood firm, and was honourably observed for more 
than half a century. Massasoit outlived all the leaders who 
took part in that day's proceedings, yet he had been years 
in his grave before the alliance entered into was seriously 
shaken, and the disastrous war with his son Philip came to 
its direful issue. 

The treaty being thus concluded, Samoset returned to 
his own tribe in the north, in what is now the State of 
Maine, while Tisquantum remained with the colonists as 
their valued friend. To the colonists themselves this had 
been an eventful and memorable week. They had learnt 
much of their surroundings and possibilities ; had made 
friends where they had expected to meet with foes ; fears 



PLYMOUTH PLANTATION. 217 

had been dissipated, the sense of dread had given way to a 
feeling of security ; and it may well have been that when 
the next Sabbath came its round, and the little community 
gathered for worship in their simple conventicle, they were 
ready to say to each other : ' The Lord hath done great 
things for us, whereof we are glad.' 

As the spring advanced, the time came on for the 
Mayflower to return. From December to April she had 
remained at anchor in the bay, a link of connection with 
the far-off world from which they had come. Various 
circumstances had delayed her departure — a succession of 
storms, the necessity of housing the Pilgrims till the 
buildings on shore were ready, the sickness of the colonists, 
and most of all, the sickness on board, from which the boat- 
swain died, the gunner, the cook, and three of the quarter- 
masters, besides several of the ordinary seamen. It was 
not till the 5th of April, therefore, that the remainder of 
the crew hoisted sail and prepared to depart. It was a 
testing-time for the Pilgrims on shore. When the 
Mayflower was gone, their nearest civilised neighbours 
would be the French of Nova Scotia, five hundred miles 
to the north, and the English settlement in Virginia, five 
hundred miles to the south. Still weakened and reduced 
in numbers as they were, like brave Englishmen they held 
resolutely to their purpose. They might have had 
opportunity to have returned to the dear old land they had 
left behind, but did not. We can well believe that, with 
tearful eyes and fast-beating hearts, men, women and 
children stood on the hillside wistfully watching the vessel 
as she passed out of the bay and towards the distant 
horizon, and till she vanished out of sight. 

But the best cure for sorrow is work, and the daily demands 
of daily life left but scant room for sentiment. For there was 
land to be dressed and corn to be sown, and all hands must 
needs be busy in preparing for the necessities of the coming 



2i8 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

time. Here their new Indian acquaintance proved of 
eminent service. As strangers to the soil, they knew little 
as to what would thrive best, and under what conditions. 
Tisquantum therefore gave them the benefit of his know- 
ledge and experience, telling them that Indian corn, which 
was to be their main dependence, should be sown when the 
young leaves on the oak tree were as big as the ears of a 
mouse. He showed them, also, how to put the fish known 
as ale-wives round the roots of the maize, so as to secure 
good result when the harvest came, and also when these 
ale-wives were most plentifully to be caught. So all went 
briskly to work, sometimes planting and sowing, sometimes 
felling timber and building, and sometimes, from the 
necessity for food, hunting and fishing. Though after the 
sickness had done its work there were only twenty-one 
men and six growing lads left to do the work of the 
colony, yet that season twenty-one acres of corn-land were 
tilled, six acres more were sown with wheat, rye, and 
barley ; in addition to which the gardens round their 
houses were also brought into cultivation. 

In the midst of these industrial activities a great sorrow 
fell upon the little community, in the sudden death of John 
Carver, their governor. Coming one day in April from the 
cornfield, complaining of a pain in the head, he lay down 
to rest, became insensible, and, though lingering for two or 
three days, never spoke again. As their governor, and 
esteemed for his Christian worth, his funeral was conducted 
with as much of state as they could command, the mus- 
keteers firing mournful volleys over his grave. There 
is a further touch of pathos in the fact that his good wife, 
Katharine, of frail and delicate build, and worn out with 
hardship, was also laid by his side in the same quiet 
resting-place overlooking the sea. 

The funeral over, there was a successor to be chosen. 
There was only one man who could be thought of for the 



PL YMOUTH PLANTA TION. 219 

vacant place. William Brewster, as elder and practically 
sole pastor and preacher, was sufficiently occupied ; his 
friend William Bradford therefore was at once chosen by 
the suffrages of the brethren as their governor, Isaac 
Allerton to be his assistant in the duties of his office. 
Regarding the history of this early New England common- 
wealth as a prelude to that of the great Federal Republic, 
it has been pointed out that there is a peculiar interest 
attaching to this election of Bradford as that of the first 
American citizen of the English race who bore rule by the 
free choice of his brethren, as standing at the head of the 
bead-roll of those governors of the West who, without 
having any early training in political life, and lacking 
much that the Old World has deemed needful in her 
rulers, have yet by inborn strength of mind and lofty 
public spirit shown themselves in all things worthy of 
the high office to which they were called.^ 

The government being now settled in the hands of 
Bradford and his assistant, and the earlier work of planting 
and sowing being all over, it was deemed advisable that 
same summer to send out one or two expeditions. And 
first, by way of consolidating the friendly alliance already 
established, Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins, with 
Tisquantum as guide and interpreter, were commissioned 
as an embassy to Massasoit, and charged to make careful 
observation of the country on their way. Travelling for 
some fifteen miles, they came to Namasket, a village at the 
rapids, where they were kindly treated by the Indians, and 
by sunset had reached another camp of the same tribe, 
four or five miles farther up the river. The next afternoon 
they entered the territory of the Wampanoags, the home- 
tribe of Massasoit ; his principal seat was at Sowams, now 
known as Warren on Narragansett Bay, which the travellers 

^ Doyle's English in America, vol. i., p. 71. 



2i8 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

time. Here their new Indian acquaintance proved of 
eminent service. As strangers to the soil, they knew little 
as to what would thrive best, and under what conditions. 
Tisquantum therefore gave them the benefit of his know- 
ledge and experience, telling them that Indian corn, which 
was to be their main dependence, should be sown when the 
young leaves on the oak tree were as big as the ears of a 
mouse. He showed them, also, how to put the fish known 
as ale-wives round the roots of the maize, so as to secure 
good result when the harvest came, and also when these 
ale-wives were most plentifully to be caught. So all went 
briskly to work, sometimes planting and sowing, sometimes 
felling timber and building, and sometimes, from the 
necessity for food, hunting and fishing. Though after the 
sickness had done its work there were only twenty-one 
men and six growing lads left to do the work of the 
colony, yet that season twenty-one acres of corn-land were 
tilled, six acres more were sown with wheat, rye, and 
barley ; in addition to which the gardens round their 
houses were also brought into cultivation. 

In the midst of these industrial activities a great sorrow 
fell upon the little community, in the sudden death of John 
Carver, their governor. Coming one day in April from the 
cornfield, complaining of a pain in the head, he lay down 
to rest, became insensible, and, though lingering for two or 
three days, never spoke again. As their governor, and 
esteemed for his Christian worth, his funeral was conducted 
with as much of state as they could command, the mus- 
keteers firing mournful volleys over his grave. There 
is a further touch of pathos in the fact that his good wife, 
Katharine, of frail and delicate build, and worn out with 
hardship, was also laid by his side in the same quiet 
resting-place overlooking the sea. 

The funeral over, there was a successor to be chosen. 
There was only one man who could be thought of for the 



PL Y MOUTH PLA N TA TION. 2 1 9 

vacant place. William Brewster, as elder and practically 
sole pastor and preacher, was sufficient!}^ occupied ; his 
frTend William Bradford therefore was at once chosen by 
the suffrages of the brethren as their governor, Isaac 
Allerton to be his assistant in the duties of his office. 
Regarding the history of this early New England common- 1 
wealth as a prelude to that of the great Federal Republic, 
it has been pointed out that there is a peculiar interest 
attaching to this election of Bradford as that of the first 
American citizen of the English race who bore rule by the 
free choice of his brethren, as standing at the head of the 
bead-roll of those governors of the West who, without 
having any early training in political life, and lacking 
much that the Old World has deemed needful in her 
rulers, have yet by inborn strength of mind and lofty 
public spirit shown themselves in all things worthy of 
the high office to which they were called.^ 

The government being now settled in the hands of 
Bradford and his assistant, and the earlier work of planting 
and sowing being all over, it was deemed advisable that 
same summer to send out one or two expeditions. And 
first, by way of consolidating the friendly alliance already 
established, Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins, with 
Tisquantum as guide and interpreter, were commissioned 
as an embassy to Massasoit, and charged to make careful 
observation of the country on their way. Travelling for 
some fifteen miles, they came to Namasket, a village at the 
rapids, where they were kindly treated by the Indians, and 
by sunset had reached another camp of the same tribe, 
four or five miles farther up the river. The next afternoon 
they entered the territory of the Wampanoags, the home- 
tribe of Massasoit ; his principal seat was at Sowams, now 
known as Warren on Narragansett Bay, which the travellers 

^ Doyle's English in America, vol. i., p. 71. 



220 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

reached at nightfall, and where they were received with 
cordial welcome. Seated by the side of the chief, and 
surrounded by a crowd of Indian spectators, by the aid 
of their interpreter they delivered their message. Present- 
ing him, on behalf of their governor, with a gay trooper's 
coat trimmed with lace, and also with an ornamental 
copper chain, having a medal attached, they informed him 
that the chain was intended to be lent as a token to any 
friend of his whom he desired to be hospitably received by 
them, and would ensure their kindness. Among other 
matters, they referred to the corn they had found buried, 
when they landed at Cape Cod the previous winter, asking 
that the owner might be known, that they might pay him 
for what they had taken. Assenting to their requests, the 
chief then arrayed himself in the gay coat they had 
brought him, and placing the chain round his neck, sat in 
state to his own eminent satisfaction, and to the admiration 
of his braves. After making a lengthy harangue, which 
his people received with assent and applause, the chief 
spent the rest of the evening in smoking with his guests, 
and in making inquiries about England and King James. 
When it was time for bed the situation became embarrassing, 
for Winslow and Hopkins found they were to sleep in the 
chiefs own bed, he and his wife at one end, and they at 
the other. Moreover, as two of the chief men also crowded 
upon the royal couch, too strait for so many, and as the 
bed consisted of rude planks merely covered with a mat, 
Winslow declared that he was more wearied with his bed 
than with his journey. 

After tarrying two nights and a day, Massasoit urged 
them to prolong their stay ; but while his welcome was 
cordial, Indian fare was somewhat hard, and they were 
disposed to turn homewards. Returning by a different 
route, they passed for miles through a country which must 
once have been thickly populated, but over which the 



PL YMO UTH PLANT A TION. 22 1 

plague had swept, leaving the bleaching bones of unburied 
thousands, a gruesome sight to see. On and on they 
travelled in solitude through once cultivated fields lying 
along the streams, and through park-like woods of oak, 
walnut and beech and exceeding great chestnut trees. After 
being absent for five days, they reached home once more, 
' wet, weary and surbated ; ' but to their own relief and the 
joy of their brethren. 

About the same time another expedition was sent out, in 
search of a son of one of the settlers who had lost himself 
in the woods, and subsisting on berries, had wandered on 
for five days, till he found himself at the head of Buzzard's 
Bay, twenty miles from home. Hearing from Massasoit 
that the lad was in the hands of the Nanset Indians, ten 
men, well armed, started in the shallop to recover the 
wanderer. Reaching, after varied adventure, the abiding- 
place of Aspinet, the sachem of the Nansets, whom the)^ 
found surrounded by a hundred of his attendants, the lost 
one, profusely decorated with beads, was handed back to 
his countrymen. In the month of August a more signifi- 
cant expedition started for Middleborough. Rumours had 
reached Plymouth that Corbitant, the chief of the Pocassets, 
had captured Massasoit, and was denouncing the friendly 
relations established between the colonists and the sachems 
of the Cape, Tisquantum and another Indian named 
Hobomok, going to Namasket to ascertain the truth, were 
captured by Corbitant, who threatened to take their lives. 
While he was holding a knife to the breast of Tisquantum, 
saying that with the death of their interpreter the English 
would lose their tongue, Hobomok contrived to escape and 
make his way through the woods to Plymouth. A council 
of war was held at once. It was felt that a timid policy 
would be dangerou.s, and that to neglect their ally Massasoit 
would be to prevent other Indians making alliance with 
them. It was decided at once therefore that Standish, with 



222 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

ten armed men, should start next day for Namasket, and 
that if Tisquantum were really killed, Corbitant should be 
beheaded. The house pointed out by Hobomok was 
surrounded at midnight, Corbitant called for, and notice 
given that no one should leave the building till search 
had been made. It turned out that Corbitant had gone 
away, leaving Tisquantum in the village unharmed, he 
coming out to welcome his friends. Returning with him, 
they left a message for Corbitant to the effect that if he 
continued his hostile course, forming conspiracies against 
them, rebelling against Massasoit, their friend, or offering 
violence to their friends or his, no place should secure him. 
The effect of this promptitude was felt at once both far and 
near. The story of this faithful defence of an ally secured 
other allies. The sachem of Capawack (now Martha's Vine- 
yard), of whom the colonists knew nothing, sent to make 
peace and acknowledge the English king, as also did 
Aspinet and Canacum of Manomet. Five other chiefs 
followed, even Corbitant sought the good offices of Massasoit 
to make his peace with foes so formidable as the men of 
Plymouth. That same autumn, and as a sequel to this 
expedition, five chiefs set their marks to a document 
acknowledging themselves the loyal subjects of King 
James. 

Encouraged by the result of their expeditions thus far, 
the settlers resolved to send some of their number to 
Massachusetts Bay, to establish, if possible, peace and 
commercial relations with the Indians to the north, who, 
they were given to understand, were hostile to them. They 
succeeded in making friendship with the tribe of the 
Shawmuts ; but the expedition was of interest chiefly as 
making the English acquainted with what was to be known 
hereafter as Boston Harbour, which they greatly admired as 
a place for shipping. As in their shallop they glided in and 
out among its forty-seven beautiful islands, they began to 



PLYMOUTH PLANTATION. 223 

regret that they had not made this their place of settlement. 
But, pleased with their reception, and bringing with them 
store of beaver skins to lighten their indebtedness to the 
Merchant Adventurers at home, they sailed back by the light 
of the harvest moon, reaching Plymouth the following day. 
As the autumn of their first year in the colony was 
veering towards winter, they were now able to look back 
with some measure of satisfaction. Heavy sorrows had 
befallen them, friends and comrades had fallen by their 
side, still, the experiment of founding a new home began 
to justify itself. Seven dwelling-houses and four public 
buildings on the main street were the outcome of their 
patient toil. Of the latter, one served for worship and for 
town meetings, the others as storehouses for provisions, 
clothing, trading stock and general supplies. Though some 
of the smaller crops had failed, the corn had repaid them for 
their la,bour ; furs were stored and prepared timber made 
ready for the next ship to England. Finally they were at 
peace with the Indians round about, with some of them, in- 
deed, on terms of intimate friendship. They resolved there- 
fore with public rejoicings to keep what may be called their 
Feast of Tabernacles. In this way and at the end of their 
first year in the colony, commenced the New England festival 
of Thanksgiving Day. It was observed as a time of 
recreation, and also as an opportunity of extending their 
hospitality to their Indian ally Massasoit, who came on 
their invitation, bringing ninety of his people with him. 
These guests of theirs remained for three days, during which 
they captured five deer, to add to the colony's stock of 
provisions ; they also contributed their share towards the 
amusements of the time, while the colonists on their part 
entertained their guests with some small show of military 
display. This time of rest after toil was observed also as a 
time of praise for mercies j;eceived. They placed it upon 
record that they had ' found the Lord to be with them in 



224 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

all their ways, and to bless their outgoings and incomings, 
for which,' said they, 'let His holy name have the praise for 
ever to all posterity ! ' 

In the month of November the Nanset Indians passed 
on to Plymouth the intelligence that a ship was seen 
making her way into the Cape harbour. What could it 
be ? No vessel had been seen since the Mayflower left, 
nor were they expecting any till the spring came round. 
England and France were then at war ; could it be that 
these were Frenchmen, with hostile intent ? A cannon was 
at once fired from the battery, to call in all who were out 
in the fields, and soon every man who could shoulder a 
musket fell into his place, and stood on the outlook. The 
alarm turned out to be needless. The stranger drawing 
nearer proved to be a friend, for the English flag was seen 
floating at her masthead. It was the ship Fortune, 
bringing thirty-five new colonists, among them being 
William Brewster's eldest son, John Winslow a brother 
of Edward, and Robert Cushman. ' The plantation,' says 
Bradford, * was glad of this addition to its strength, but 
could have wished that many of them had been of better 
condition, and all of them better furnished with provisions ; 
but that could not be helped.' 

In addition to her passengers, the Fortune brought the 
colonists a patent of their land from the Council of New 
England, drawn up in the name of John Pierce and his 
associates, in the same manner as the New York grant 
formerly received from the Virginia Company. This 
document, bearing date June i, 162 1, is still preserved in 
the Pilgrim Hall at Plymouth, and bears the signatures and 
seals of the Duke of Lenox, the Marquis of Hamilton, the 
Earl of Warwick, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges. It defined no 
boundaries, but, under certain conditions, gave to Pierce 
and each of his associates a hundred acres of land. It 
remained in force, however, only for a year, being super- 



PL YMOUTH PLANT A TION. 225 

seded by one by means of which Pierce hoped, but in vain, 
to get the Plymouth people into his own power. 

The Fortune, besides this patent, brought a letter from 
Weston, complaining that when the Mayflower returned 
she brought back no profitable cargo from the colonists. 
That they had sent back no lading in the ship, he said, was 
wonderful, and worthily distasted. He had heard of their 
weakness and its cause, biit for his part he thought it was 
weakness of judgment rather than weakness of hands, and 
that a quarter of the time they had spent in discoursing, 
arguing and consulting, spent in other ways, might have 
produced better results. Taunts like these uttered to men 
who had had to watch day after day by the sick and the 
dying, and many of whom had narrowly escaped death 
themselves, were felt to be ungenerous and uncalled-for. 

Bradford repelled these unworthy imputations in language 
at once pathetic and dignified. Weston's letter had been 
addressed to Carver as governor. 'Touching him,' says 
Bradford, 'he is departed this life, and now is at rest in the 
Lord from all those troubles and encumbrances with which 
we are yet to strive. He needs not my apology, he who 
for the common good oppressed himself and shortened his 
days. If the company had lost their profits, these w^ere 
not to be set over against the loss of the lives of honest and 
industrious men, which could not be valued at any price. 
It had pleased God to visit them with death daily, and 
with so general a disease that the hving were scarce able to 
bury the dead, and the well not in any measure to tend the 
sick. And now to be greatly blamed for not freighting 
the ship at such a time doth indeed go near us and much 
discourage us.' He concluded by telling Weston that the 
colonists had conceded the points at issue, had signed 
the controverted articles, and were sending back the 
ship well-laden. He hoped, therefore, that friendship 
would be re-established, and that the promises made by 

Q 



226 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

the Merchant Adventurers on their side would not be 
forgotten. 

When the Fortune returned, she took back for the 
company a cargo of beaver fur, prepared timber, and 
profitable sassafras to the value of about i^SOO. This 
hardly-earned consignment, however, never reached its 
destination. When off the English coast the vessel was 
captured, and her cargo seized by the French, and carried 
to Isle Dieu. The cargo was retained, but at the end of 
fourteen days the ship and ship's company were released, 
and Cushman, who was on board, secured all the papers, 
among which was Bradford's and Winslow's Journal, 
known as Mourt's Relation. There was also a letter from 
Edward Winslovv to his ' loving and old friend,' George 
Morton, who was about to come out in the next vessel, 
advising him as to what he and his companions were to 
bring with them — good store of clothes and bedding, and 
each man a musket or fowling-piece, the piece to be long 
in the barrel, and as the shooting was from stands, they 
need not fear the weight of it ; juice of lemons they would 
find of use to take fasting, and for hot waters, aniseed was 
the best, but should be used sparingly. As glass was then 
much too great a luxury for a New England home, he 
recomm.ends they should bring paper and linseed oil for their 
windows, and much store of powder and shot. Besides 
this letter of Winslow's, there was another from William 
Hilton, one of the emigrants who had come to Plymouth in 
the Fortune, and who was sending back home his first 
impressions of the colony, which were considerably coiUeiir 
de rose. He tells his friends in this letter that he found 
the country pleasant and temperate, yielding naturally of 
itself great store of fruits, with vines of divers sorts in great 
abundance. Timber of varied kind abounds, and there are 
great flocks of wild birds — turkeys, quails, pigeons and 
partridges ; while lake and sea were well stored with fish. 



PL YMO UTH PLANT A TION. 2 27 

Better grain than Indian corn, he thinks, no man need 
desire, and best of all, says he, * we are all freeholders ; the 
rent-day doth not trouble us ; and all those good blessings 
we have, of which, and what we list in their seasons for 
taking. Our company are, for most part, very religious, 
honest people ; the word of God sincerely taught us every 
Sabbath ; so that I know not anything a contented mind 
can here want^^ 

Early in (1662 there were disquieting rumours as to 
possible hostilities on the part of the Narragansett Indians. 
About the beginning of April, a messenger from that tribe 
left a sheaf of arrows tied round with a rattlesnake skin, 
which Tisquantum interpreted as a declaration of war. To 
show fear would be to invite destruction. Governor 
Bradford at once, therefore, sent back the snake-skin 
stuffed with bullets and powder and accompanied with a 
defiant message. The chief, Canonicus, alarmed at the 
look of the missive, refused to receive it ; back, therefore, 
it was sent from place to place, till it found its way to 
Plymouth again. A feeling of insecurity was occasioned 
by this event, and was intensified by the news which 
reached them about the same time from Virginia. For the 
English settlers there, apprehensive of no danger, had 
scattered their dwellings far apart from each other; and 
taking advantage of this fact, the Indians had treacherously 
risen on the 22nd of March and massacred men, women, and 
children to the number of 347.^ Not one would have been 
left alive to tell the tale, but for the fact that a settler 
named Pace was warned by an Indian convert who lived 
in his house. Unfortunately, the scattered state of the 
colony made it impossible for the English to combine in 
any plan of resistance, or even to send warning to the most 

^ This letter was first printed in 1622 in Smith's New EnglaticVs 
Trials. 
^ Colonial Paper Sy vol. ii., July 13, 

Q 2 



228 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

distant plantations. The news of this massacre reaching 
Plymouth at the very time the Narragansetts were showing 
signs of hostility created a feeling of alarm, and led these 
colonists in the north to take such precautions as had been 
neglected by the settlers in the south. In five weeks they 
had constructed a strong line of palisade on the north side, 
beginning at the shore line, and extending along the upper 
part of the hill as far as the Townbrook. In this line of 
palisade there were four flanking-bastions, from which 
musketry could command the outside, and in three of these 
bastions were gates, which were kept locked at night and 
guarded by sentinels. Standish further placed all able to 
bear arms under a general muster or training, forming with 
the new-comers a battalion some fifty strong. 

In the midst of these precautions and alarms there 
arrived a shallop from a fishing-vessel in the harbour, partly 
owned by Weston, and bringing letters from him. In these 
he informed the Plymouth people that he was about to form 
a settlement of his own near to them, and asking them to 
maintain the seven men in the shallop till the main body 
should arrive. The quartering of these men upon them 
that summer was an unwelcome additional strain on their 
scanty resources. For though their crops were sown, they 
were not grown, and June found their storehouses almost 
empty of provision ; moreover, wild-fowl were out of season, 
and though of fish there were bass in the outer harbour and 
cod in the bay, they had neither nets nor deep-water tackle 
to take them. All through the summer, having neither 
bread, meat, nor vegetables, they were reduced to subsist 
on what shell-fish they could find. To complicate the 
situation still further, two of Weston's emigrant ships 
arrived, landing sixty more men, who, while drawing their 
food from the vessels, trusted for lodgment to the people on 
shore. Some of the new-comers were of doubtful sort, and 
finding that green corn roasted in the ear was an agreeable 



PL YMOUTH PLANT A TION. 229 

food, they robbed the cornfields remorselessly, seriously 
reducing the moderate crop of maize on which the colony 
had to depend for next year's sustenance. After six weeks 
the vessels fortunately returned and took off these men to 
the new colony to be started at Wessagusset, since known 
as Weymouth ; they went, leaving their sick behind, and but 
scanty thanks for the hospitality received. As the result 
of frequent depredations, the crop harvested that autumn 
proved altogether too light and insufficient to feed their 
people, even through the winter ; and all the food they 
could purchase from the Indians north and south of them 
would go but a little way towards their subsistence till 
harvest-time came round. 

In the autumn of 1622 their faithful friend Tisquantum 
died of fever, leaving his little property to his English 
friends, and asking Bradford, who had nursed him like a 
woman, to pray for him that his soul might go to the 
Englishman's God in heaven. The following March also 
news reached Plymouth that their friend and ally Massasoit 
lay dangerously ill at Sowams. The Indian custom of 
visits of ceremony to their chiefs in time of sickness ren- 
dered it desirable to send an embassy. Taking Hobomok 
as interpreter, Winslow therefore set forth, reaching the 
dwelling-place of the chief late at night. He found him 
still alive, his wigwam crowded with people, and the 
powahs in the midst of charms and incantations, making, 
as Winslow says, ' such hellish noise as distempered us that 
were well, and therefore unlike to ease him that was sick.' 
The patient had not slept for two days, and had gone quite 
blind. He was able to understand, however, that Winslow 
had come to see him, and desired to have him near. 
Winslow expressed on behalf of the governor at Plymouth 
the sorrow he felt at hearing of Massasoit's condition, and 
saying that he had sent such things as were likely to relieve 
him. Winslow then took the case in hand, dismissing 



230 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

powahs and all the Dfficious crowd who were hindering 
rather than helpinLj" the patient's recover}'. It was very 
simple medical treatment he resorted to, but under it the 
complaint, after a time, began to }'ield ; long sleep came 
over the wearied man, and graduall}- he rose once more 
from what was thought would prove the bed of death. On 
his recovery he gratefully declared, ' Now I see the ICnglish 
are my friends and love me, and while I live I will never 
forget this kindness the}' have shown me.' 

The opportunit}' of showing his gratitude was even now 
within his reach, and he used it. As the messengers were 
on the point of returning, the chief called Hobomok aside, 
and told him of a plot w'hich was being set on foot by the 
Massachusett Indians, which he was to reveal to W'inslow on 
their wa}' home. To understand the meaning of the secret 
thus confided to Hobomok, we must go back a step or two 
in the narrative. The colonists whom Weston had planted, 
as we ha\e seen, at Wessagusset on Boston Ba}% proved to 
be not well-disciplined or self-controlled. B}' the middle of 
March they had exhausted their stores and even devoured 
their seed-corn. Reduced to extremities, some of them 
hired themsehes out to the Indians for a cap -full of corn 
to fetch wood and water ; others less honestly disposed 
took to robbing the Indians, for which their own governor 
had them put into the stocks and whipped. E\ entually food 
w'as refused to them on an}- terms. Upon this, the ques- 
tion of making a raid on the Indian stores was discussed. 
Before this extreme step was taken, how^ever, some thought 
that advice should first be sought from Governor Bradford 
at ri}-nunith. This was doiie b}' letter, their leader stating 
that the}- had used all means both to bu}' and borrow of the 
Indians, who had stores, as he knew, but who, maliciously 
as he thought, withheld them. On receipt of this, Bradford 
summoned a town's meeting to advise thereon. After due 
deliberation, a letter was drawn up in reiil}-. and signed b}' 



PL YMO UTH PL A NT A 770 N. 23 r 

many of the townsmen, to the effect that they altogether 
disliked this purpose of theirs, as being contrary alike to 
the law of God and the law of nature. If they carried out 
that purpose, it would be fatal both to the peaceable 
enlargement of the king's dominion and to the propagation 
of the law and knowledge of God and the glad tidings of 
salvation, and would breed a distaste in the savages against 
their persons and professions. 

In speaking thus, they were not unmindful of the 
hardships their neighbours were going through, ff;r they 
themselves were in the same case, having but little corn 
left, and being compelled to subsist on ground-nuts and 
shell-fish. They might do the same, and should remember 
that even if they did rob the stores of the Indians, their 
ill-gotten gain would last but a little while, and they would 
then have to seek food among men whom they had made 
their enemies. It would be better to begin in a course 
h'kely to hold out, and on which they might with a good 
conscience ask and expect the blessing of God. 

Such was the answer received. Meantime things went 
from bad to worse at Wessagusset. The settlers having 
sold nearly all their clothing for food, were half-naked as 
well as half-starved. Camping out in the woods in search 
of food, or wandering along the beach, .squalid and abject 
from hunger and disease, they became objects of contempt 
to the Indians, who began to look on them as enemies who 
might easily be swept out of life. Such was the situation 
of affairs when Winslow returned from his visit to Massasoit. 
The news he brought back to the men of Plymouth was 
not reassuring. For the secret confided to Hobomok by 
Massasoit, and which he was to reveal to Winslow, was to 
the effect that the Xcponset Indians had resolved on a 
general massacre, both of the settlers at Wessagus.set and 
those at Plymouth. They had no cause of complaint 
against the latter, but they knew that they would never 



232 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

submit to see their fellow-countrymen ruthlessly murdered 
without rising on their behalf. The safest thing, therefore,, 
would be to put them out of the way too. With this intent, 
they entered into a league with the seven tribes south and 
west of Plymouth, and also, even in his sickness, tried to 
induce Massasoit to join them. In this way he came to be 
aware of their plot, and, out of gratitude to Winslow, 
revealed it. His advice was that the Plymouth settlers 
should strike the first blow, seizing and executing the 
main conspirators among the Neponsets. If, as was their 
custom, they waited for the other side to become the 
aggressors, they would find that that meant a massacre 
of sixty of their countrymen at Wessagusset, whom no 
subsequent energy could bring back to life again ; and 
immediately after that, a host of Indians let loose upon 
themselves, excited and infuriated with bloodshed. 

The situation was serious, and as it was now the time for 
holding the court or annual town meeting for the election 
of officers, Bradford laid the matter before the whole 
body of the people in their chief assembly. It was an 
anxious debate. They were unwilling to shed the blood 
of those whose good they sought, and whose conversion 
they had hoped for. But the massacre of the previous 
year in Virginia and the very decided words of Massasoit 
seemed to leave them no alternative. It was agreed 
therefore that Standish, taking with him a sufficient force, 
should start, as if on a trading expedition, warn their 
countrymen at Wessagusset, and then strike home at the 
chief conspirators. On arriving, he found to his dismay 
that their vessel, the Swan, was in the harbour, without a 
soul on board, that the settlers were scattered in different 
directions, and the whole plantation in fancied security,, 
letting the Indians come in and out among their dwellings 
as they pleased. By Standish's advice all the men were 
called home, and on pain of death ordered to stay there. 



PL YMOUTH PLANT A TION. 233 

The first day being stormy, nothing could be done ; but 
an Indian spy coming in under pretence of selling furs, saw 
the course affairs were taking, and went back with his 
report. From this the conspirators saw their secret was 
out, and at once assumed a defiant attitude, surrounding 
Standish, and sharpening their knives. He kept his self- 
command, wishing to get the chief conspirators together 
before commencing action. He so managed matters as to 
get them at length into one of the dwellings, with an equal 
number of his own men. He then gave the word of 
command, on which there was a desperate struggle, and 
seven Indians fell in the hand-to-hand encounter. Next 
day the matter came to further issue in the open, Standish 
securing the strategic advantage of a rising hill, for which 
both sides were striving. The Indians from behind the 
trees kept up a shower of arrows, till Hobomok came to 
the front. Somehow he had obtained the reputation of 
being 2, pinese, or one who holds communication with the 
evil spirit ; when, therefore, he threw off his coat and ran 
towards them, they fled like a flock of sheep. 

^Sb in comedy ended the tragedy, after which Standish 
urged the settlers to go on with their plantation, or if they 
preferred, come to join their neighbours at Plymouth. But 
they had had enough of colonisation and its attendant 
experiences, and determined to go back. Putting, therefore, 
all their movable property on board the Swan, lying out 
in the bay, they joined the fishing vessels at Monhegan and 
abandoned the country. 

On the return of Standish and his party to Plymouth, it 
was decided to complete the fort on the hill commenced 
some ten months before. The work had been delayed 
through differences of opinion, some deeming it unnecessary, 
and others regarding it as vainglorious. But recent alarms 
put an end to these differences, and the fort was completed. 
It was described as large and square, and by Bradford as 



-34 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

' strong and comely,' and a great work for them. From 
that time it became the centre both of their civil and 
religious life. The main room in the building was used as 
the place of meeting for worship till about 1648, when the 
first church edifice was erected at the foot of the hill ; here 
also the town meetings were held henceforth, the common 
house being used for storage. The fort being thus used as 
a place of worship, the land on the hill round it became 
God's Acre, the burial-place of their dead. On the flat roof 
above the meeting-house artillery was placed behind bat- 
tlements, and sentinels stationed night and day. The 
fort itself has, of course, long since disappeared, but a 
marble tablet still marks the spot where once it stood, and 
portions of its foundations may still be traced. 

Till the spring of 1623, from the necessity of the case, the 
colony had gone on the communistic system, for being 
under common obligation to pay back to the Adventurers 
the money advanced, they were practically trading as one 
company. But communism had serious drawbacks, as it 
always must have. It had been tried here at Plymouth under 
more than ordinarily favourable conditions, for it was tried 
in a community of sober, industrious and godly men. Yet 
it was far from successful, for it led to confusion and dis- 
content, discouraged production, and bestowed a premium 
upon indifference. The strong and able thought it hard 
that they should have to work for the wives and children 
of other men, and share no more than those who could not 
do half their work. On the other hand, grave and aged 
men felt it to be somewhat of an indignity that they should 
be reduced to an equality, and made to work in the ranks 
with the younger and meaner sort. Husbands, too, rebelled 
at the idea of their wives having to dress the meat and 
wash the clothes of other men, feeling this to be a kind of 
slavery hard to brook. That all should be on an equality 
to have alike and do alike, and should think themselves 



PLYMOUTH PLANTATION. 235 

one as good as another, Bradford says, did imuch diminish 
and take off that mutual respect which it is good to pre- 
serve in a community. It would have been worse, he thinks, 
with worse men, and it is to no purpose that the failure 
lies not with the system, but with the corruption of human 
nature, for, seeing that all men have this corruption in 
them, God in His wisdom has seen another course fitter 
for them. 

With this feeling prevalent, before the planting time 
of 1623, a modified departure from the communistic system 
was determined upon. Without making provision for 
inheritance, it was arranged to assign to each family for 
one year a parcel of land in the proportion of one acre to 
each person, and as the land varied in quality and value, 
it should be divided by lot. This arrangement at once 
infused new life into the community. All now went to 
work with a will, and planted far more corn than under 
the old system. Even the women went willingly into the 
fields, taking their children with them to help. 

Still, though the planting season of 1623 was a time of 
busy industry and willing work, this could not alter the 
fact that by the time the seed-corn was in the earth their 
stores of food were spent. Many a night they went to rest 
without knowing whence the next day's food was to come, 
and how they were to live till the next harvest came its 
round, it was impossible to say. They said one to another 
that now above all people in the world they had need to 
cast themselves on God's providence, and pray that He 
would give them daily bread. Yet, as Bradford tells us, 
they bore their hardships with great patience and alacrity 
of spirit, though for two or three months together they had 
neither bread nor any kind of corn ; and in spite of scanty 
fare God in His mercy preserved both health and life. In 
this hard time, while they trusted in God, they with their 
usual bravery and good sense vigorously helped them- 



238 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



IX. 

AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 

The thanksgiving celebrated by the Pilgrims at the hill 
fort had not gone by many days when a vessel was seen 
making its way into the harbour at Plymouth, which proved 
to be the ship Anne, bringing additional colonists and stores 
from the Adventurers in London. Ten days later she was 
followed by the Little James, a pinnace of forty-four tons, 
the two vessels together bringing about a hundred new 
emigrants for the colony. Some of these were so obviously 
unfit for colonial life that the governor shipped them back 
at once in the same vessel at his own expense. Many of 
the others had come out to pursue an independent course 
of their own ; the remainder were old friends and kinsfolk 
from the Church at Leyden. Among the latter were George 
Morton and his household, Fear and Patience the two 
daughters of Elder Brewster, the wife of Samuel Fuller, 
Mrs. Southworth, who afterwards became the wife of 
Governor Bradford, and Barbara, subsequently married to 
Miles Standish. These and the rest of the old friends from 
Leyden were welcome arrivals^indeed, and the greetings on 
both sides naturally of cordial sort. But the greetings over, 
the new-comers began to feel disappointed with their new 
surroundings. For the reality, as they found it, was widely 
different from the rose-coloured pictures of New England 
life they had either painted for themselves, or had had 
suggested to them by such letters as that which William 
Hilton had sent over. They were startled, on meeting 
them again, to see the change wrought in those from whom 



AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 239 

they had parted at Delfshaven h'ttle more than two years 
before. Scanty fare, constant exposure and hard grinding 
toil had taken the freshness and brightness out of their 
faces ; their clothes were tattered and worn, their log-built 
huts rude and unattractive to those who had just left the 
cities of the Old World behind them ; and the best dish 
they could set before their friends when they came to them 
was a lobster or a piece of fish, without bread or anything 
else but a cup of fair spring water. It was a process of 
disillusion, and the disillusion was complete. Some wished 
themselves back again, while others even fell a-weeping, as 
they saw in their friends what they themselves might have 
to come to. 

The practical demands of life, however, make short work 
of regretful sentiment. There was business to be done, and 
at the very outset stood the necessity of making some 
amicable adjustment between the claims of the old settlers 
and the new. For, on the one hand, as the new-comers had 
only brought sufficient supplies of food for themselves to 
last till harvest, they were not willing to let these provisions 
£)f theirs come into the common stock. On the other hand, 
the established settlers did not consider it fair that the 
recent arrivals should have share in the produce of the 
harvest to which they were looking forward, and for which 
they alone had toiled. It was agreed, therefore, that the stores 
in the ship should be the exclusive property of those who 
had sailed in her, and that the produce of the coming harvest 
should belong to those who had sown the seed. Then there 
was a further complication. Besides the sixty emigrants 
who had come over in the Anne, who were to be merged in 
the general colony, there were about forty more who wished 
to form a separate colony within the colony, and who 
described themselves as 'particulars,' by way of distinction 
from the body of colonists regarded as 'generals.' After 
conference held on the matter, it was agreed that these 



240 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

should be received with courtesy, and have competent 
places assigned them within the town, and that they should 
be free from the labour expected from the rest, except such 
public service as might be necessary for the safety of the 
colony. On the other hand, they were not to be at liberty 
to carry on trade in furs and other commodities with the 
Indians ; towards the maintenance of the government and 
all public officers, each male ' particular ' above the age of 
sixteen would be expected to pay into the common store a 
bushel of Indian corn, or the value of it ; and finally they 
were to be subject to such laws and ordinances as were 
already or should hereafter be enacted for the public good. 
The new-comers, ninety-six in all, added to those who came 
over in the Mayflower, with the thirty-five brought by the 
Fortune, two hundred and thirty-three in all, make up the 
company of those known in America as the Pilgrims, or 
First Comers or Forefathers. Out of the two hundred and 
thirty-three there were about a hundred and eighty survivors 
at the end of 1623. 

Up to this time the government of the colony had 
necessarily been of the simplest and most rudimentary 
kind. As Professor Freeman has pointed out, the smallness 
of the scale of the settlement led them to reproduce in not 
a i&^ points the England of an earlier age than their own ; 
that, in fact, a New England town-meeting was essentially 
the same thing as the Homeric agore, the Athenian ekklesia, 
the Roman comitia, the Swiss Landesgemeinde, and the 
English folk-moot. The circumstances of the case called 
again into being the primitive assembly which had not long 
died out in the Frisian sea-lands, which still lived on in the 
Swabian mountain-lands, but which, in the older England, 
was well-nigh forgotten.^ 

The town-meeting being thus the central source of 

^ Introduction to American Institutional History, by E. A. Free- 
man ; John Hopkins' University Studies, Series I., p. 15. 1882. 



AT THE END OE SEVEN YEARS. 241 

authority, all arrangements at first were simplicity itself. 
Fresh laws were added as fresh laws were needed, but no 
statute-book was deemed necessary, an entry in the 
governors note-book being all that was thought requisite. 
But towards the end of 1623, the Colony Record-book 
was started, and the first entry, under date December 17, 
marks an important development in criminal procedure. 
Hitherto, the {q\v trials there were had been conducted 
by the whole body of the townsmen, the governor pre- 
siding and carrying out their decision. This arrangement, 
natural enough at first, became cumbrous at length, as the 
townsmen increased, leading to waste of time. The first 
entry in the new records marks a great step onward in the 
establishment of trial by jury, it being enacted and provided 
that 'all criminal facts, and also all matters of trespass and 
debt between man and man, shall be tried by the verdict of 
twelve honest men, to be empanelled by authority in the 
form of a jury upon their oath.' The following New Year's 
day also (March 25), a further development in the govern- 
ment ensued when the colony, for the third time, elected 
William Bradford as governor. He demurred to being 
chosen again, urging that the very purpose and intent of an 
annual election was the constant change from one to 
another of all posts of honour or labour. If honour there 
were, others should share it ; if burden, others should help 
to bear it. He urged also his opinion that the governor, 
whoever he was, ought to have associated with him a 
council for his assistance. Notwithstanding this protest,, 
the townsmen re-elected him, but deferred so far to his 
wishes as to create a council of five, giving him a double 
vote at the board. 

About the time of this election there arrived at Plymouth 
the ship Charity, bringing the last communications they 
were ever to receive from John Robinson, their former 
pastor, for whose coming to them they still continued to 

R 



243 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

hope. One letter, dated Leyden, December 19, was for his 
' loving and much beloved friend,' Governor Bradford, in 
which he expresses his regret at hearing of the killing of 
the Indians at Wessagusset by Standish : ' How happy a 
thing it had been,' says he, ' if }-ou had converted some 
before you had killed any ! ' He exhorts them to have a 
care of the military spirit of Standish. He loves him right 
well, and is persuaded that God has given him to them in 
mercy and for much good, if he is used aright ; but 
he fears there may be wanting in him ' that tenderness 
of the life of man (made after God's image) which is 
meet.' 

Robinson's other letter to his ' loving and dear friend 
and brother,' William Brewster, deals mainly with the 
difficulties continually raised by some of the Merchant 
Adventurers in the way of the coming over of himself and 
the rest of the Leyden brethren. Not by all of them, for 
there were five or six on the board who were their warm 
friends ; about as many more were opposed to the 
establishment of free worship in the colony ; the remainder, 
the main body, he thinks are honestly minded towards 
them, but at the same time they ' have others (namely, the 
forward preachers) nearer unto them than us, and whose 
course, so far as there is any difference, they would rather 
advance than ours.' He is persuaded they are unwilling 
that he, above all others, should be sent over, they having 
ecclesiastical purposes of another sort for the colony. And 
as one restive jade can hinder by hanging back more than 
two or three can draw forward, so in this case. He knows 
that even while the messenger from Plymouth was present, 
the hostile section 'constrained the company to promise 
that none of the money now gathered should be expended 
or employed to the help of an}- of us toward you.' He can 
only say : * Your God and ours, and the God of all His, 
bring us together if it be His will, and keep us in the mean- 



AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 243 

while, and always to His glory, and make us serviceable to 
His Majesty, and faithful to the end.' 

Robinson's surmise as to the purpose of the Adventurers 
to establish the Episcopal form of Church government in 
the colony was not without foundation. In 1623, Robert 
Gorges, commissioned by the Council for New England as 
governor-general of the whole country, took out another 
company of settlers to the deserted village of Weymouth, 
formerly known as Wessagusset. He brought with him an 
Episcopalian clergyman of the name of William Morrell, to 
Avhom the council had given general powers of regulation 
and control over the religious affairs of the country. 
Bradford says : ' He had I know not what power and 
authority of superintendency over other churches granted 
him, and sundry instructions for that end.' A man of good 
sense and tolerant temper, he soon found it was easier to 
confer large powers in the old country than to exercise 
them in the new. He spent a year at Plymouth, studying 
anthropology among the Indians, and accumulating obser- 
vations in natural history, but remaining silent on the 
matter of his ecclesiastical commission till he was on the 
point of leaving. Only after he had gone away was it 
fully realised that all the time he had lived so amiably and 
innocently among them he was possessed of full powers 
authorising him to compel the Pilgrim Fathers to conform 
to that Church of England from which at so great a cost 
they had severed themselves. But though this first 
endeavour to set up conformity came to nothing, those of 
the Adventurers who were opposed to religious freedom 
did not abandom their intention. The emigrants who had 
come over in the Anne, and who kept themselves separate 
from the rest of the colonists as ' particulars,' formed the 
centre from which this new movement was to emanate. 
They began by sending complaints privately to London to 
the effect that there was much religious controversy in the 

R 2 



244 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

colony, that family exercises on Sunday were neglected, 
that both sacraments were disused, and that children were 
not catechised, or even taught to read. So that when, in 
1624, the ship Charity arrived from England, bringing 
cattle and other supplies, she brought also a series of 
inquiries on these points from the board in London, and 
at the same time brought John Lyford, an Episcopal clergy- 
man of Puritan sympathies, whom the Adventurers opposed 
to Free Church principles had selected for the accomplish- 
ment of their purpose. 

Both Edward Winslow and Robert Cushman were at 
the meeting of the company where he was appointed, and 
opposed his being sent out, but yielded at length for peace 
sake, thinking, as they said, that he was *a honest and plain 
man, though none of the most eminent or rare.' They 
gained their point so far, however, that it was agreed that 
Lyford should have no official position in the colony until 
the Church at Plymouth should see fit to choose him as 
their pastor. He was civilly received on his arrival, housed 
and provided with a servant till his obsequious manner 
began to excite misgiving. ' When this man first came,' 
says Bradford, 'he saluted them with that reverence and 
humility as is seldom to be seen, and indeed made them 
ashamed, he so bowed and cringed unto them ; yea, he 
wept and shed many tears, blessing God who had brought 
him to see their faces, and admiring the things they had 
done.' After a time he sought Church-membership with 
them, made a large confession of his faith, and as acknow- 
ledgment of his formerly disorderly walking, blessing God 
for the liberty he now possessed of enjoying the ordinances 
of God in purity among His people. They felt he was 
altogether too effusive. These shrewd Englishmen would 
have liked him better had he protested less. Their mis- 
givings were confirmed as they found him often engaged 
in secret conference with Oldham and others of the 



AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 245 

* particulars.' They came to know, too, that he was writing 
letters home to the Adventurers of defamatory sort, letters 
he was seen showing to his confederates, and at which they 
chuckled and laughed. Feeling how seriously these letters 
might affect the interests of the colony in England, the 
governor intercepted them on board the vessel in which 
they were to be sent out. He found, as; he expected, that 
they contained slanders and false accusations against the 
original settlers ; and in one of them Lyford informed the 
Adventurers that he and Oldham intended a reformation 
in church and commonwealth, and that as soon as the ship 
bearing his letters had sailed they would set up Episcopal 
worship. Without knowing that the governor was in 
possession of these letters, these men began to seek 
occasions of quarrel with the Plymouth leaders. Oldham 
stormed at Standish when in his capacity as captain he 
called upon him to take his place in order as sentinel at 
the fort, called him evil names, and even drew his knife. 
The governor, hearing the tumult, came out to quiet it, at 
which he stamped and raved, calling them traitors and 
rebels ; ' but after he was clapt up awhile he came to 
himself,' and was let go. Eventually the party associated 
with Lyford and Oldham, without communicating with the 
rest, withdrew themselves and set up public worship apart. 
The governor now felt the time had come to confront 
Lyford with the letters which had been intercepted, and 
for this purpose summoned a court of the townsmen at the 
fort on the hill. In the presence of all he charged Lyford 
and Oldham with secretly plotting to destroy the govern- 
ment. They indignantly denied the charge, demanding 
proof, upon which Lyford's letters were produced and some 
of them read, on which he was struck dumb. The governor 
explained that in his capacity as magistrate he had opened 
the letters, it being his first duty to prevent mischief and 
ruin to the colony by conspiracies and plots. 



246 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

These letters contained a series of charges as to the 
civil management of the colony : unfair distribution and 
partiality ; also waste of tools and vessels. But points of 
more serious moment related to the advice Lyford sent 
home to the Adventurers as to the mode of proceeding in 
future. He advised first of all that John Robinson and 
the rest of the Church at Leyden should be kept out of the 
colony, or all would be spoilt. Care should be exercised 
not only that they should not be shipped from Leyden, but 
also that they should not be landed privately on any part 
of the English coast. To prevent this, it would be well to 
change the captain, who was friendly to the colony. He 
further urged that a number of new colonists should be 
sent over sufficient to outnumber the present settlers ; that 
those known as ' particulars,' though by their own arrange- 
ment having separate interests, should yet have a voice in 
all courts and elections, and be free to hold any office in 
the town ; and that every ' particular,' though only a 
servant, should rank as an Adventurer. If by these means 
they cannot be strengthened to carry and overbear things, 
it would be best for them, he thinks, to go elsewhere, and 
start a plantation for themselves ; he therefore asks for 
authority from the board to do this, if it should be found 
necessary. Finally he concludes by saying : ' I pray you 
conceal me in the discovery of these things.' ^ 

In the presence of the whole body of townsmen Lyford 
was asked what explanation he had to give of these letters, 
taking the charges point by point. He had little to say 
except that he had heard complaints from this man and 
that, but possibly he had been misled. 

They reminded him that when he sought admission to 
the Church, he declared that he no longer regarded himself 
as a minister, though episcopally ordained, till he received 

^ Bradford's History of Plymouth Plantation^ pp. 1 77-181. 



AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 247 

a call from them ; yet now he contested against them, and 
drew a company apart, without even speaking a word to 
them, either as magistrates or brethren. Thus confronted, 
the man broke down, confessed that he feared he was a 
reprobate, and that his sins were so great that he doubted 
whether God would ever pardon them ; he admitted that 
he had so wronged them that he could never make amends, 
and that he was unsavoury salt. 'All this he did with as 
much fullness as words and tears could express.' 

The court decided that the leaders of this movement 
should depart the colony, Oldham to go at once, leaving 
his family behind, till he could make provision for them ; 
Lyford might remain six months longer. They gave him 
further space, hoping he might change his course. He 
admitted he was leniently dealt with, and afterwards 
publicly confessed his sin to the Church, ' with tears more 
largely than before.' Upon this they began again to con- 
ceive good thoughts of him, and admitted him once more 
to teach among them. 

In the course of a month or two, however, he was again 
writing secretly to the Adventurers, justifying his former 
letters, and complaining that there was no ordained 
minister in the colony, Elder Brewster being still their 
preacher. This also coming to the knowledge of the 
townsmen, they made reply to the various points urged 
against them, as to their having no ordained minister 
among them — 

' We answer, the more is our wrong, that our pastor is 
kept from us by these men's means, and then reproach us 
for it when they have done. Yet have we not been wholly 
destitute of the means of salvation, as this man would make 
the world believe ; for our reverend elder hath laboured 
diligently in dispensing the Word of God unto us, before 
he came, and since hath taken equal pains with himself in 
preaching the same. And be it spoken without ostentation. 



24S PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

he is not inferior to Mr. Lyford (and some of his betters) 
either in gifts or learning, though he would never be per- 
suaded to take higher office upon him,' 

This letter of Lyford's was written towards the end 
of August, 1624, after which he remained at Plymouth 
through the following winter, living as before from the 
public stores, ultimately joining Oldham at Nantasket, 
where there were a few straggling settlers. Next year 
Oldham sailed into Plymouth Harbour once more ; but as 
he came only to assail the colonists ' beyond the limits of all 
reason and modesty, calling them a hundred rebels and 
traitors, and I know not what,' there was nothing for it but 
to commit him till he grew more reasonable, after which, 
led out between two lines of musketeers, he was ignomi- 
niously expelled the colony ; and so for all the purposes of 
this narrative he goes on his way, and we see him no more. 
It will probably be said that the ejectment of Episcopa- 
lians from Plymouth colony was an inconsistent piece of 
intolerance on the part of men who had fled from intoler- 
ance at home. But it may fairly be replied that judgment 
must be forbearing towards men who feared, rightly or 
wrongly, that the object of the new-comers was not so 
much religious equality as ecclesiastical absorption. Brad- 
ford, speaking on behalf of the colonists, says that — 'all 
the world knew they came hither to enjoy the liberty of 
their conscience and the free use of God's ordinances, and 
for that end had ventured their lives, and passed through 
grievous hardships.' Their past experience might well 
make them fearful of the introduction of the national 
system, at a time when Laud was beginning to be in the 
ascendant, and with iron will and heavy hand driving men 
into conformity. Was there any reason to suppose they 
would long retain that freedom for which they had sacri- 
ficed so much, if the Episcopal system, with the royal 
power to enforce it, were once introduced among them ? 



AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 249 

Using quaint illustration, William Bradford contended that 
it would turn out to be a modern instance of an ancient 
fable — the fable of the coney, who out of pity received a 
hedgehog into his burrow one stormy day. Once fairly 
lodged, the hedgehog, not content with merely sharing 
quarters with the original owner, by vigorous use of his 
prickly spines compelled the coney to vacate her burrow 
and leave the whole of it to him. 

The breach with Lyford at Plymouth led to a breach 
v/ith the Board of Merchant Adventurers at home. Re- 
turning from England in the early part of 1625, Edward 
Winslow brought a communication from them to the effect 
that only on certain conditions would they consent to con- 
tinue their connection with the plantation. One of the 
main reasons for their change of attitude was that the 
Church at Plymouth had received Lyford to their fellow- 
ship, who, on his confession before them, had renounced 
national and diocesan churches. It was clear, they said, 
from this, that though they had renounced the name, 
practically they were Brownists still, and it would be sin 
against God, therefore, on their part, were they to support 
them. They will, however, still co-operate on these con- 
ditions, namely : that as they, the Adventurers, were 
partners in trade, they should also be partners in the 
government of the plantation ; that the French or Presby- 
terian discipline should be adopted both in substance and 
detail, so that both the name of Brownist and differences 
resulting therefrom would be done away with ; and finally, 
that their former pastor, John Robinson, and the remaining 
portion of the Church at Leyden, should not be allowed to 
come over and join their brethren at Plymouth, unless they 
should first reconcile themselves to the system which the 
Adventurers speak of as ' our Church,' that is, the Church 
of England, by written recantation signed under their own 
hands. 



250 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

To these demands the colonists made reply that in effect 
they did hold and practise the discipline of the French and 
other Reformed Churches, as set forth in the Hannony of 
the Co7ifessions of 1586, but that to tie themselves down to 
that discipline in every particular would be to give away 
the liberty they had in Christ Jesus. Even Paul himself 
would have no man follow him except as he followed 
Christ ; and that it was too great arrogancy for any man 
or any Church to think that he or they have so sounded 
the Word of God to all its depths as to be able to set down 
precisely the Church's discipline without error in substance 
or circumstance ; it would not be difficult, indeed, to show 
that the Reformed Churches themselves differ in many 
things among themselves. What they had to say as to 
Robinson and his friends at Lcyden signing a recantation, 
Bradford in his History omits ' for brevity's sake,' and 
possibly for other reasons. 

While that portion of the Adventurers to whom this 
reply was addressed disappear now from the history, the 
section still favourable to the plantation sent by Winslow 
a reply of their own. In this they state that the joint 
account has been closed, that ;^I400 remained due, and 
that the goods to meet this should be shipped as trade 
permitted. They go on to say they are persuaded that the 
reason of the withdrawal of the other Adventurers is really 
want of money (for need whereof men use to make many 
excuses), though other reasons are pretended, as that they 
were Brownists and the like. Still, though it might be too 
late to stay these things, it was not too late to exercise 
patience, wisdom, and conscience in bearing them. The 
right thing for them to do was to keep a fair and honest 
course, and see what time would bring forth, and how God 
in His providence would work for them. We are persuaded, 
they say, that you arc the people that must make a planta- 
tion where all others fail and return. Go on, good friends, 



AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 251 

pluck up your spirits and quit yourselves like men in your 
difficulties, so that, in spite of all the displeasures and 
threats of men, the work to which you have put your hand 
may still go forward, a work which is so much for the 
glory of God and the welfare of our countrymen that it 
were better for a man to spend his days for that than to 
live the life of Methuselah in wasting the plenty of tilled 
land or eating the fruit of a grown tree. 

In the summer of 1625 Miles Standish took a voyage to 
England in the interests of the colony, having with him 
letters in reply to those they had received. This mission 
was undertaken at an unfortunate time. The king had 
died at the end of March, his son Charles I. was giving all 
the weight of his influence to Laud, who was vigorously en- 
forcing uniformity ; and London was being ravaged by the 
plague, the tale of death rising week by week, and trade being 
almost at a standstill. All that Standish could accomplish 
during the five months of his stay was to obtain the loan 
of ;^i50 at fifty per cent, interest, wherewith to purchase 
goods for the colony. Returning in a fishing vessel bound 
for the coast of Maine, his arrival there was notified by 
some Indian messenger, and the shallop was sent up the 
coast to bring him and his goods on to Plymouth. 

He had serious tidings to relate. He brought them the 
first news of the death of the king they had received, though 
by that time he had been dead more than a year ; Prince 
Maurice also was gone, he who had been Stadtholder of 
Holland during the time they were at Leyden ; their friend 
Robert Cushman, too, whom they looked upon as their 
right hand with the Adventurers, had died at the early age 
of forty-five ; Fletcher, another friend of theirs, had been 
ruined by Turkish pirates ; and many who were knit to 
them in bonds of Christian brotherhood both in England 
and Holland had died of the plague. It was indeed a 
changing world. But, most sorrowful of all, Standish had 



2 5 2 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLA ND. 

to tell them that all hope of their ever seeing John Robinson 
once more among them must now be abandoned. He had 
letters with him, one from Roger White, Robinson's 
brother-in-law, one from Thomas Blossom, a leading 
member of the Leyden brotherhood, and also a joint letter 
from the Church at Leyden, addressed to Bradford and 
Brewster, telling them that their former pastor had been 
seized with illness on Saturday, February 2 2, and that 
though he had rallied sufficiently to be able to preach 
twice the following day, before another Sabbath came its 
round he had entered into rest, departing this life on 
March i, 1625. Roger White wrote pathetically that: 
' If either prayers, tears, or means would have saved his 
life, he had not gone hence.' In like strain of sorrow 
Thomas Blossom's letter mourned the departure of their 
loved and honoured pastor, 'whom the Lord (as it were) 
took away even as fruit falleth before it was ripe ; when 
neither length of days nor infirmity of body did seem to 
call for his end. The loss of his ministry,' he adds, 'was 
very great indeed unto me, for I ever counted myself happy 
in the enjoyment of it, notwithstanding all the crosses and 
losses otherwise I sustained . . . We may take up that 
doleful complaint in the Psalm, that there is no prophet 
left among us, nor any that knoweth how long. Alas ! 
you would fain have had him with you, and he would as 
fain have come to you.' 

The letter from the Church was signed by four of the 
brethren in the name of the rest. In it they say that, though 
'it hath pleased the Lord to take to Himself, out of this 
miserable world, our dearly beloved pastor, yet for ourselves 
we are minded, as formerly, to come unto you when and as 
the Lord affordeth means. And now, brethren, what shall 
we say further unto you ? Our desire and prayer to God 
is (if such were His good-will and pleasure) we might be re- 
united for the edifying and mutual comfort of both, which 



AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 253 

when He sees fit He will accomplish. In the meantime we 
commit you unto Him and to the word of His grace.' 

Sorrow over Robinson's death was felt, and respect for 
his memory manifested beyond the bounds of their own 
community. Winslow tells us that — 

'When God took him away from them and us by death, 
the University and ministers of the city accompanied him 
to his grave with all their accustomed solemnities ; bewail- 
ing the great loss that not only that particular Church 
had whereof he was pastor, but some of the chief of them 
sadly affirmed that all the Churches of Christ sustained a loss 
by the death of that worthy instrument of the Gospel' ^ 

John Robinson was buried under the pavement of St. 
Peter's, the church near to his own house. The official 
record of the fact has been discovered in recent years, and is 
as follows, making, as usual, Dutch mistakes in recording 
English names. ' 1624, 4 March. John Roelends, Preacher 
of the English Community by the belfry — buried in the 
Peter's Church.' 

Another officer, giving the receipt for his burial, enters it 
thus : 

1625 I Open and hire for John Robens 

10 March | EngHsh Preacher — 9 florins. 

He died in the house already described on the Klok-steeg, 
In a census of the city taken October, 1622, he is 
registered as Jan Robberson, his wife's name being Bridget ; 
their children were Isaac, Mercy, Fear, and James ; and 
they have Maria Hardy as their domestic. Isaac joined 
the Pilgrims in New England, but Robinson's widow and 
the rest of his household appear to have remained at 
Leyden. The Church of which he was pastor continued to 
exist and apparently to flourish for many years after his 

^ The Ground of First Planting of New England, p. 95 ; London, 
1646. 



254 PILGRIM lATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

death. In 1644, when the Reformed Churches contributed 
17,567 florins to aid their brethren in Ireland, this com- 
munity sent 558 florins, a sum equal to about ;^200 of 
present value. As time went on, however, those who 
originally came over from England died off gradually, so 
that the Dutch-speaking element came eventually to be 
the only one left ; and in 1658, as Hoornbeck tells us, the 
Church united itself with the Reformed Church of Holland. 
After a period of more than two centuries, the interest 
in Robinson's memory was revived by the discovery of 
Scrooby as the starting-point of the Pilgrim Church ; and 
on July 24, 1 89 1, a bronze memorial tablet, fixed in a 
recess of the exterior of St Peter's Church at Leyden, 
was unveiled under the auspices of the National Council 
of Congregational Churches of the United States. The 
ceremony took place in the presence of delegates from 
England and America, the burgomaster, and the repre- 
sentatives of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of the city 
and of the University of Leyden. 

About the time that Brewster received at Plymouth the 
tidings of the death of his former friend and pastor, his 
own wife was called away from his side, at the age of fifty- 
six. Troubles, therefore, still gathered round him, the 
clouds returning after the rain. Yet it is often at such times 
that God is nearest to His own, and Bradford, in his brave, 
godly way, tells us that * the Lord, whose work they had in 
hand, so helped them that now when they were at the 
lowest they began to rise again ; and being stripped in a 
manner of all human helps and hopes, He brought things 
about otherwise in His divine providence as that they were 
not only helped and sustained, but their proceedings were 
both honoured and imitated by others, as by the sequel 
will more appear.' 

As these words imply, from this time onward the out- 
look of life grew wider for the colonists. Their agriculture 



AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 255 

prospered, for the produce of their Indian corn growing 
beyond their own requirements, they found they could get 
ready sale for the surplus at six shillings the bushel ; they 
therefore used great diligence in planting the same. They 
felt also that, in order to meet their liabilities in England, 
it was necessary to establish in addition a more general 
trade with their neighbours. It having been agreed that 
no one colonist should trade on his own behalf separately, 
this matter was left in the hands of the governor and some 
others, to be managed for the general good of the colony. 
The difficulty felt at the outset was as to where goods 
could be procured for the purpose of this more general 
trade. Fortunately, the opportunity presented itself when 
it was most needed. A trading post established at Mon- 
hegan by merchants from the English Plymouth was 
about to be broken up, and the remainder of the stock 
offered for sale. Hearing of this, Governor Bradford and 
Edward Winslow went over, and acquired half the property, 
to the value of ;^400. About that time, also, a French 
ship, having a cargo of Biscay rugs and other commodities 
on board, was wrecked at Sagadahoc ; these goods also, 
through some Bristol merchants, they acquired, paying for 
the most part in beaver fur and other barter obtained 
during the previous season ; for the rest, their note of hand 
was accepted, to fall due the following year. 

Having in this way become better furnished for trade, 
and with their corn after harvest, they were now able to 
meet their various engagements against time, get clothing 
for their people, and have some commodities beforehand. 
One serious difficulty in the way of their carrying on any- 
thing like an extensive trade lay in the fact that they 
possessed only one small open boat, which was dangerous 
for long voyages, especially in the winter season. The 
ship-carpenter was dead, but fortunately the house-carpenter 
was a man of resource, and at their request resolved to try 



256 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

what he could do. Taking one of the largest shallops, he 
lengthened her five or six feet, strengthened her with 
timbers, built her up, and laid a deck upon her, and so 
fitted her with sails and anchors that she did them good 
service for seven long years, and so enabled them to build 
up a trade on the Kennebec. 

Still, while their trade was growing, they felt hampered 
by their engagements with the Merchant Adventurers and 
by the restrictions placed upon them in the matter of their 
friends and brethren at Leyden, who were anxious to come 
to them, and whose company they desired to have. The 
governor and some of their chief friends, therefore, had 
serious consideration, and * resolved to run a high course, 
and of great adventure.' The plan they proposed was to 
hire the trade of the company for a certain term of years, 
and during that time to pay off the ;^i8oo due from the 
plantation to the London Adv^enturers, and also their 
trading debts, amounting to some £^oo more. For 
purposes of negotiation on this and other matters, Isaac 
Allerton was sent over to England in 1626, and returned 
the following year ' at the usual season of the coming of 
ships.' He had been able to obtain a loan of ;!^200 for the 
colony at thirty per cent, interest, with which he purchased 
trading goods, ' which goods they got safely home and 
well conditioned, much to the comfort and content of the 
plantation.' 

With regard to the main matters of his commission, he 
had, ' with much ado and no small trouble,' and by ' the 
help of sundry of their faithful friends there, who also took 
much pains thereabout,' come to an arrangement by which 
the company in London surrendered all claim to stock, 
shares, land, merchandise and chattels, in consideration of 
the sumof ;^i8oo of lawful money of England, to be paid 
* at the place appointed for the receipt of money on the 
west side of the Royal Exchange in London,' ;^200 to be 



AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 257 

paid yearly, and every year, on the Feast of St. Michael, the 
first payment to be made in the year 1628. This agree- 
ment made by Allerton on their behalf was very well liked 
and approved of by the plantation, and consented to. As 
the colony was not a chartered corporation, the responsibility 
must, of course, be personal, and was jointly borne by 
Bradford, Brewster, Standish, Allerton, Winslow, Rowland, 
Alden, and Prince, and a deed duly drawn up, signed and 
sealed to that effect, was taken over to England by 
Allerton the following season. These brethren, who, as the 
bondsmen of the colony, engaged with the Adventurers on 
the one side to pay off the public debt, engaged also with 
the colonists themselves on the other side to do so within 
six years, and further would import every year ;:^5o worth 
of hose and shoes, to be sold to the colonists in exchange 
for corn at six shillings per bushel, on the understanding 
that the entire trade of the colony with the outside world 
should be carried on by themselves alone ; that each 
purchaser among the colonists should pay to them, year by 
year for the six years, three bushels of corn or six pounds 
of tobacco, as might be preferred ; and that they, having 
undertaken these responsibilities, should have and freely 
enjoy the boats with their equipment, and also the whole 
stock of furs, fells, beads, corn, hatchets, and knives now in 
the stores. At the end of the said term of six years the 
whole of the trade was to return to the use and benefit of 
the colony as before. The men who undertook these re- 
sponsibilities were afterwards known as the ' Undertakers.' 
In this way the property in the colony passed from the 
Adventurers to the colonists, and for a period of six years 
from the colonists to the Undertakers. 

This fundamental change in the direction of independence 
brought about other changes of wide-reaching economical 
effect. First of all, the responsibility incurred by the eight 
securities was divided over the whole community, by the 

S 



258 PILGRIM FATHERS OF .\£ll' EXGLAXD. 

payments in corn and tobacco to be made }'car by year, and 
also by the arrangement that if the trade profits were not 
sufficient to meet tlie yearly payments in London, the 
deficiency should be made up in equal proportions by all 
the settlers who were described as purchasers and were to 
be enrolled as such. In return for this liability, the land 
being divided into shares of twenty acres each, every 
purchaser should have one share, in addition to the land he 
already possessed, the heads of households to have as many 
shares, and therefore as many liabilities, as they had persons 
in their families. By this arrangement the more recent 
comers, such of the ' particulars ' as still remained, and 
others in the colon}- not so described, who }-et had arrived 
later than those who came in the Mayflower, would be on 
equal footing with the rest. In pursuance of this arrange- 
ment, strips of land along the river-side, five acres by four, 
were marked out for tillage and assigned by lot. The 
meadow land, however, was not to be divided in perpetuity, 
but held in common, except that every season, for the 
purpose of hay for his cattle, each purchaser had assigned 
to him a certain portion which he was at liberty to mow. 

This was the carrying out of a plan to which Bradford 
and Brewster had probably been accustomed in the old 
Austerfield and Scrooby days. Those who have scientifi- 
cally investigated the rural economy of Britain seem to 
have established the fact that, throughout the whole period 
from pre-Roman to modern times, two parallel systems 
have obtained undisturbed by all invasions — Roman, English 
and Norman — that of the village communit}', on the eastern 
side of Britain, and that of the tribal community, in the 
western districts of the island, neither of which seems to 
have been introduced later, at any rate, than two thousand 
years ago.^ Each s}-stem was marked by the two notes of 

^ The English Village Community, By Frederick Secbohm, p. 437. 
1SS3. 



AT THE EXD OF SEVEN YEARS. 259 

community and equality ; but the tribal system, belonging 
to an earlier stage, was pastoral rather than agricultural, 
whereas in the case of the village community only a small 
proportion of the land of the township was in meadow or 
pasture, each occupier having certain defined rights of 
common thereon. These commons were divided as Green 
Commons and Lammas Meadows ; to the former the cows 
of the township were daily driven, the latter were subject to 
temporary occupancy by individuals on a regular system 
for the one purpose of haymaking.^ This ancient system, 
going back in Britain farther than the historic period, seems 
to have been the plan carried out by the Plymouth colonists 
as soon as they were free to act. Side by side with this 
arrangement as to the land, there was a quaint method of 
distributing the few cattle which, as yet, were all they 
possessed. These were too few and too precious to be the 
sole property of individuals, and were therefore assigned to 
small partnerships. For it was not till 1624 that they had 
any homed cattle, and the following year the four they 
had were only increased to nine. In 1627 there appear to 
have been twelve cows, which were divided at a town 
meeting. There being one hundred and fifty-six persons 
at this time in the colony, namely, fifty-seven men, thirty- 
four boys, twenty-nine matrons and thirty-six girls — ser- 
vants and indentured persons not being reckoned — there 
were therefore thirteen persons to each cow, these to have the 
use of her for ten years, after which she was to be restored 
to the common stock, with half her increase, if increase 
there were. In case of abuse or neglect, all the thirteen 
were to be held responsible. The cattle, like the land, were 
assigned by lot, and to each of the divisions, except the 
fourth, was granted in addition a pair of she-goats. Equality 
of possession, however, could not long be maintained here 

^ The English Village Community. By Frederick Seebohm, pp. 1 1 . 

13- 18S3. 

S 2 



26o PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

any more than elsewhere, for the next year we find that 
Miles Standish, probably with the view of removing to 
Duxbury, had bought out the other partners in his division, 
and therefore for the remainder of the ten years had the 
cow to himself 

The whole of this arrangement is most methodically laid 
down in the records, and the names of all the one hundred 
and fifty-six shareholders, men, women and children, care- 
fully given, so that we are able pretty definitely to see how 
the colony actually stood at the end of the seven years 
dating from the landing of the Mayflower in 1620. Taking 
all those who had at various times come to the colony, 
and adding to their number those who had been born there, 
they came altogether to two hundred and sixty-seven. Of 
these fifty-eight had died, and fifty-three had removed else- 
where, leaving, as we have seen, one hundred and fifty-six 
still remaining. It is ominously significant of the fearful 
hardships of the first year when we find that, while only 
six died during the remaining six years, no fewer than 
fifty-two died that year. 

It so happens that in 1627 we have not only the means 
of measuring the growth of the colony from within, but 
have also testimony from without as to its general appear- 
ance at the end of the first seven years of its history. It 
will be remembered that in 1620 negotiations were being 
carried on between the Dutch merchants and the Pilgrims 
then in Leyden with a view to settlement together on the 
Hudson River. Three years later a permanent Dutch 
colony was established at Manhattan, the modern New 
York, but no further communication took place between 
this plantation and that at Plymouth for several years. In 
March, 1627, however, Bradford, in his capacity as governor, 
received a friendly letter from Isaac de Rassieres, the 
secretary of the colony at Manhattan, addressed to the 
' noble, worshipful, wise and prudent lords, the Governor 



AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 261 

and Councillors of Nieu Pliemiien, wishing their welfare in 
Christ Jesus our Lord.' ' It is their manner,' says Bradford, 
' to be full of complementall titles.' In this letter, they had 
often wished, Ihey say, to congratulate their friends at 
Plymouth on their prosperous undertakings as colonists ; 
the more so that they themselves also had made good 
beginning to pitch the foundation of a colony where they 
were ; and seeing also that, their native countries lying not 
far apart from each other, their ancestors centuries ago had 
held friendship and alliance both for war and traffic, as 
might be read in old chronicles by all the world. And 
now they on their part are willing to renew this intercourse, 
and to carry on trade with them as neighbours which may 
be of mutual service. If they, too, are agreeable to this, 
some one shall be deputed to deal with them at such time 
and place as they may appoint. 

This letter was acknowledged on the part of the 
Plymouth people with friendly civility, except that they 
modestly demurred to ' the over-high titles more than 
belongs to us or is meet for us to receive ' with which the 
letter was addressed ; they reciprocate the good feeling 
expressed by these neighbours of theirs, and cannot forget, 
they say, the hospitable reception given to them at Leyden 
in days gone by ; having hved there many years with 
freedom and good content, as many of their friends did 
still ; for which they and their children will ever be 
grateful to the Dutch nation. They further express their 
readiness to trade with them in commodities or merchan- 
dise as desired, and they trust that this offer of theirs may 
work out to good and fruitful result in days to come. 
This reply of the Plymouth people being written in Dutch, 
they pray to be excused for their rude and imperfect 
writing in that language, seeing that, for want of use, they 
cannot so well express themselves as they would desire. 
This correspondence in the spring of 1627 was followed in 



262 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

the autumn by a visit from the Dutch secretary, who came 
in state, making solemn entry heralded by trumpeters, and 
attended by some of the pageantry dear to the hearts 
of his countrymen. He remained several days, spent a 
Sunday with them, attending their religious services, and 
finally departed, having established trading communica- 
tion between New Plymouth and New Amsterdam which 
continued for several years. 

Some time after, De Rassieres returned to Holland, where 
he wrote to Herr Blommaert, a director of his company, 
an account of his visit to the Plymouth plantation. This 
letter, as lately as 1 847, found its way to the Royal Library 
in Holland, and has since been printed,^ giving an interest- 
ing description of the colony as seen by a contemporary at 
the end of the first seven years of its history. 

After describing the bay as lying to the north of Cape 
Cod, the point of which can be easily seen in clear weather ; 
the sandbank of Plymouth Beach, twenty paces broad, over 
which the sea breaks violently with an easterly and north- 
easterly wind ; the small island of Saguish, and the river of 
fresh water, rapid but shallow, on the south side of the 
town, flowing down to the sea from inland lakes above, he 
then describes the town itself. 

' New Plymouth,' he tells us, ' lies on the slope of a hill, 
stretching east toward the sea-coast, with a broad street 
about a cannon-shot of eight hundred feet long leading 
down the hill, with a crossing in the middle, northward to 
the rivulet and southward to the land.' One may stop by 
the way here to point out that the street is nearly twelve 
hundred feet long, and that De Rassieres has unwittingly 
reversed the bearings of rivulet and land. He goes on to 
say that ' the houses are constructed of hewn planks, with 
gardens also enclosed behind and at the sides with hewn 

* New York Historical Collections, New Series, vol. ii. ; also in the 
Appendix to Nczi> Enghxnd''s Memorial, p. 495. 



AT THE END OF SEVEN YEARS. 263 

planks, so that their houses and courtyards are arranged 
in very good order, with a stockade against a sudden 
attack ; and at the ends of the streets there are three 
wooden gates. In the centre, on the cross street, stands 
the governor's house, before which is a square enclosure 
upon which four small cannon are mounted, so as to flank 
along the streets,' 

He next proceeds to describe the fort on the Burial Hill, 
which played so important a part both in their civil and 
ecclesiastical life. 

• ' Upon the hill they have a large square house with a 
flat roof, made of thick sawn planks stayed with oak beams, 
upon the top of which they have six cannon, which shoot 
iron balls of four and five pounds and command the sur- 
rounding country. The lower part they use for their 
church, where they preach on Sundays and the usual 
holidays. They assemble by beat of drum, each with his 
musket or firelock, in front of the captain's door ; they 
have their cloaks on, and place themselves in order, three 
abreast, and are led by a sergeant without beat of drum. 
Behind comes the governor in a long robe ; beside him, on 
the right hand, comes the preacher with his cloak on, and 
on the left hand the captain with his side-arms and cloak 
on, and with a small cane in his hand ; and so they march 
in good order, and each sets his arms down near him. 
Thus they are constantly on their guard, night and day.' 

Possibly, in honour of the visit of the Dutch secretary, 
there may have been on that particular Sunday more 
formality and state than usual as the Pilgrims went up for 
the worship of God to their Mount Zion on Burial Hill. 
Be that as it may, that worship of theirs was in spirit and 
truth, and was associated, as all worship ought to be, with 
righteousness and integrity in daily life. De Rassieres, 
speaking of the Indians, is candid enough to say — and to 
the honour of the Pilgrim Fathers let it be said — ' The 



264 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

tribes in their neighbourhood have all the same customs as 
ours, only they are better conducted than ours, because the 
English give them the example of better ordinances and a 
better life ; and who also, to a certain degree, give them 
laws by means of the respect they from the first have 
established amon"- them.' 



( 265 ) 



X. 

ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 

In that same year of grace, 1627, in which De Rassieres 
paid his visit to the Plymouth plantation, ' some friends 
being together in Lincolnshire fell into discourse about New 
England and the planting of the Gospel there.' So wrote 
Thomas Dudley in 1631 to the Lady Bridget, Countess of 
Lincoln, giving the story of the beginnings of that second 
Puritan exodus to New England, out of which came the 
settlements round Massachusetts Bay. Thus Lincolnshire 
has the honour of being connected with the beginning of 
both movements, the one which, starting at Gainsborough, 
resulted in the formation of Plymouth Colony, and that 
which, taking its rise in the friendly discourse referred to, 
issued in the creation of the settlements in Massachusetts. 

So far as permanent results are concerned this second 
movement was even more important than the first. In 
romance of circumstance and the charm of personal heroism 
the story of the Pilgrim Fathers is pre-eminent. They 
were the pioneers who made it easy for the rest of the host 
to follow. But it was not so much what they achieved as 
what they suggested that gives them the place of honour 
in the history of their country. If the second Puritan 
exodus, which lasted over the twelve years between 1628 
and 1640, had not followed, that of 1620, at its slow rate of 
increase, would not have been sufficient to create a power 
strong enough to overcome the combined influence of 
Indians, Dutchmen, and Frenchmen, and make the English 



266 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

language and the luiglish tradition paramount on North 
American soil. The second movement, out of which came 
tlie settlements round Massachusetts Bay and along the 
valley of the Connecticut river, lias been justly described 
as the greatest effort at colonisation which Englishmen 
had yet made since the projects of Raleigh and Gilbert 
entered the national mind. For the men who made it 
were not a mere band of traders bent simply on money- 
making, but a worthily representative body of citizens 
animated with the desire of reproducing in the New World 
what was best in the life of the Old. Some of them came 
from stately homes and were possessed of wealth and social 
position, while others had occupied influential positions as 
ministers of the Church. Before the movement had spent 
itself, something like ninety university men, three-fourths of 
them from Cambridge, had emigrated to New England. 
It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this fact 
in its bearing on the future of American life.^ 

It has frequently been noted that the eastern side of 
England was ever foremost in the matter of Protestant 
Reformation. As it was in the sixteenth century under the 
Tudors, so was it in the seventeenth century under the 
Stuarts. While all the forty counties of luigland were 
more or less represented among the emigrants to Massa- 
chusetts, the shires on the eastern side contributed far more 
than all the rest. It is estimated that two-thirds of the 
American people came from these, one-sixth from Devon, 
Dorset, and Somerset, and the remaining one-sixth from 
all other parts of England. It is, therefore, not by accident 
that Boston in Lincolnshire gave its name to the chief city 
of New England, and that the earliest counties of Massa- 
chusetts were called Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex, An 

' Doyle's English in America, i. 135. T]ic Inflitoicc of the English 
Universities in ilic De';'clopnie:it of New England. By I'"ranklin B. 
Dexter. 1 8 So. 



ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 267 

American writer has noted the fact that the native of 
Connecticut and Massachusetts who wanders in the rural 
England of to-day finds no part of it so homehke as the 
homesteads, villages, and quaint market towns he passes as 
he fares forward in not too straight a line, saylfrom Ipswich 
to the I lumber or the Trent. The farmhouses with their 
long sloping roofs and gable end towards the road, their 
spacious chimneys and narrow casements, also the names 
over the shop-doors or on the tombstones in the neigh- 
bouring churchyards, all remind him of what he has left 
behind in his home across the sca.^ 

But while Suffolk in the southern portion of eastern 
England made an important contribution to the Puritanism 
of America when it sent John Winthroi) from Groton 
Manor-house, Lincolnshire made the most important con- 
tribution of all when it sent the men of mark who met in 
those days for conference in Boston town, or Sempringham 
Manor-house, or Tattcrshall Castle — the last two places 
being the seats of Thcophilus Clinton, the fourth Earl of 
Lincoln. Cotton Mather speaks of ' the religious family of 
the Earl of Lincoln — the best family of any nobleman then 
in England.' A staunch Protestant, Lord Lincoln when 
only twenty-four received permission from the king to raise 
a troop of horse to join Count Mansfeld in the service of 
the Elector of Bohemia, and was himself colonel in one of 
the six regiments engaged. He was not less strenuous as 
an advocate of constitutional right. In 1627 he was sent 
to the Tower for refusing to subscribe to the general 
forced loan resorted to by Charles I. and for actively 
dissuading his neighbours from subscribing ; and later on 
we find him trying to gain access to Sir John Eliot when 
he too was sent to the Tower for the constitutional part he 
took in the struggle of the time. Joined with the earl 'n\ 
his refusal to subscribe to the king's loan were Atherton 
' 77ie Rejoin Ji in qs of A'c7u Enjjland. By John Fiskc. i83^. 



26S PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Hough, Thomas Dudley, and Thomas Leverett — three men 
prominent among those who afterwards went to New 
England. 

Tattershall Castle, a stately mansion built by the Lord 
Treasurer Cromwell in the time of Henry VHI., and the 
other family seat of Lord Lincoln at Sempringham, 
became identified with the Puritan movement with which 
we are now concerned. Roger Williams speaks of riding 
with John Cotton ' and one other of precious memory, 
Master Hooper, to and from Sempringham,' Williams say- 
ing, as he rode along, why he could not use the Book 
of Common Prayer as Cotton did, and Cotton defending 
himself by saying that he ' selected the good and best 
prayers in his use of that book, as Sarpi did in his using of 
the Masse-book.' To Tattershall Castle, too, John Cotton 
used to retire as to a second home when broken down in 
health under the heavy strain of his ministerial life at 
Boston Church. And though the earl himself did not go 
over to New England, two of his sisters did, Susan, who was 
married to John Humphrey, and Arbella, the wife of Isaac 
Johnson. Thomas Dudley also. Lord Lincoln's steward and 
confidential adviser, and Simon Bradstreet, who succeeded 
him in that ofiice, were associated with the movement, as 
were also Richard Bellingham, the Recorder of Boston, 
Thomas Leverett, an alderman of the borough, and Atherton 
Hough, the mayor of the town in 1628, all of whom, as we 
have seen, followed his lordship's lead in resistance to the 
forced loan. 

In the matter of religion Lincolnshire had long been 
strenuous in its resistance to the ceremonies imposed upon 
the Puritan clergy. In the reports of proceedings in the 
Ecclesiastical Courts, preserved in the old Alnwick Tower 
at Lincoln, we find the father of Simon Bradstreet, the 
Puritan minister of Horbling, again and again before the 
court for nonconformity, and flatly telling them at last that 



ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 269 

conformed he had not, and conform he would not. And 
so left Lincolnshire for Middleburgh and the Puritan com- 
munity there. Dr. John Burgess also, the rector of another 
church in the county, was deprived in 1604 for preaching 
against ceremonies, ' which were not worth a man's life or 
livelihood ; ' and at the end of that same year the Lincoln- 
shire ministers presented King James with a long and 
elaborate defence of their godly brethren, who were being 
suspended and deprived for refusing subscription and 
conformity to the rites and ceremonies enjoined by law. 
They did not hesitate to tell the king that ' the greatest 
number of resident preachers and fruitful ministers do dis- 
like them and have seldom used them for many years past.' 
Many years after this again Sir John Lambe, Dean of 
Arches, spoke of 'the Puritan town of Boston,' and in 
1 62 1 the Government thought it worth while to send down 
a commission to make serious inquiry as to who had cut 
off the crosses at the top of the maces ' carried before 
the mayor to the church on Sundays and Thursdays and 
solemn times.' It was thought to be a piece of Puritan 
hostility to what some regarded as a mere Popish symbol, 
but the town-clerk said that John Cotton, the vicar, in his 
hearing, 'did condemn the doing of the said fact.' One 
also, who was afterwards among the New England men, 
' Atherton Houghe, gentleman, one of the churchwardens 
of the town of Boston, being examined, saith that he 
neither did cut off the top of the crosses from the maces 
nor doth know who did it ... . But he confesseth he 
did before .... that year break off the hand and arm 
of the picture of a pope (as it seemeth) standing over a 
pillar of the outside of the steeple very high, which hand 
had the form of a church in it ; which he did as he 
thought by warrant of the injunctions made primo of 
Queen Elizabeth, willing all images to be taken out of 
the walls of churches : and for that he heard that some 



270 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

of the town had taken note of such pictures as were in the 
outside of the church.' ^ 

Following these records we thus come into the circle of 
those friends who, in the year 1627, ' being together in 
Lincolnshire fell into discourse about New England and 
the planting of the Gospel there.' The times were growingly 
serious. The storm of civil war had not yet burst over the 
nation, but ominous signs of its coming were beginning to 
darken the face of the sky. Within a few months Parlia- 
ment placed foremost among the nation's grievances Laud's 
oppressive treatment of the Puritan party in the Church. 
Li an address to the king they speak of the general fear 
existing among the people of some secret working and 
combination to bring about ' a change of our holy religion 
more precious unto us than our lives and whatever this 
world can afford.' It is well known, they say, that to side 
with Laud is the surest way to preferment in the Church ; 
that the books and opinions of that party are suffered to be 
printed and published while those in defence of the orthodox 
religion are hindered and prohibited under colour of the 
king's proclamation. Their fears are increased by the fact 
that means have been sought out to depress and discoun- 
tenance pious, painful and orthodox preachers, hoiv con- 
formable soever, and peaceable in their disposition and 
carriage they may be. These, instead of being encouraged, 
are molested with vexatious courses and pursuits, and are 
hardly permitted to lecture, even in those places where 
there are no constant preaching ministers. 

This address of the Commons to the king throws light 
on the distinctive character of the men who composed the 
Puritan exodus which began in 1628, the year of the Peti- 
tion of Right, and ended for the most part in 1640 when 
the Long Parliament came into power. These were not 
Separatists by conviction as were the Pilgrim Fathers who 
' State Papers^ Dom. 



ARRIVAL OF NEIV NEIGHBOURS. 271 

went over in 1620 ; but, while Puritans in doctrine, were 
conformable Churchmen and loyal in their attachment to 
the Church of England. They themselves were anxious 
to emphasise this fact. The ' Planter's Plea,' published in 
1630 by one actively concerned in the movement, disavows 
in the strongest terms the suspicion which had gone abroad 
that 'under colour of planting a colony they intended to 
raise and erect a seminary of faction and separation.' The 
writer urges all men ' to forbear that base and unchristian 
course of traducing innocent persons under these odious 
names of Separatists and enemies to the Church and State.' 
There can be no manner of doubt that the spirit of this 
' Plea ' was that which from the first animated those settlers 
who went out under the auspices of the Massachusetts Bay 
Company. Francis Higginson went out in 1629, and, when 
the vessel in which he sailed was off the Land's End, he 
called his family, with some of the other passengers round 
him, to take the last farewell look of the land they were 
leaving and which they loved so well. Standing there, and 
looking eastward till the coast-line faded out of sight, he 
said : ' We will not say, as the Separatists were wont to 
say at their leaving of England, " Farewell Babylon, farewell 
Rome ; " but we will say, " Farewell dear England, farewell 
the Church of God in England, and all the Christian friends 
there ! " We do not go to Neiv England as Separatists from 
the Church of England, though we cannot but separate 
from the corruptions in it ; but we go to practise the posi- 
tive part of Church reformation, and propagate the Gospel 
in America.' John Winthrop also, and the company who 
sailed with him in 1630, when on board the Arbella, sent 
from Yarmouth a ' Humble request to the rest of their 
brethren in and of the Church of England for the obtaining 
of their prayers,' and desiring to be thought of by them 
' as those who esteem it our honour to call the Church of 
England from whence we rise, our dear Mother ; and 



272 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

cannot part from our native country where she especially 
resideth, without much sadness of heart and many tears in 
our eyes, ever acknowledging that such hope and part as 
we have obtained in the common salvation we have received 
in her bosom, and sucked it from her breasts. We leave it 
not, therefore, as loathing that milk wherewith we were 
nourished there ; but, blessing God for the parentage and » 
education as members of the same body, shall always 
rejoice in her good and unfeignedly grieve for any sorrow 
that shall ever betide her.' 

The Lincolnshire men who, in 1627, 'fell into discourse 
about New England,' did not let the matter end in dis- 
course, but proceeded to decisive action. As a preliminary 
step they entered into correspondence with men whom 
they knew to be of like mind with themselves both in 
London and the West. Those in the West were chiefly 
in the neighbourhood of Dorchester, from which town a 
private company of merchants had from 1623 onwards 
sent out fishing vessels year by year to the coast near 
Kennebec, and had landed fourteen men at Cape Ann 
to establish a permanent station for the benefit of their 
vessels. After a three years' trial this settlement was 
abandoned and the partnership dissolved. John White, the 
Puritan rector of Dorchester, saw in the failure of the 
one enterprise the opportunity of starting another of a 
more important kind. The first project of a Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts is said to have been started by 
him, and it is possible that some letters of his led to that 
conversation in Lincolnshire to which reference has been 
made. The Dorchester Company being dissolved and their 
settlement at Cape Ann broken up, some of the settlers 
removed fifteen miles to the south-west to the Indian 
village of Naumkeag, now better known under the name of 
Salem. Some of the merchants were still of opinion that 
something might be done with this place if the men who 



ARRIVAL OF NE W NEIGH BO URS. 27 3 

had gone there were reinforced and cattle sent over to 
them. 

The matter taking this new shape came to be discussed 
afresh both in London and the West, and there were some 
who offered to furnish funds if fitting men could be found 
to engage their persons in the voyage. In the course 
of inquiry they made the acquaintance of John Endicott, 
a man well known to divers persons of good note, who 
manifested much willingness to accept of the offer as soon 
as it was tendered,' and who was destined to play an im- 
portant part in the future history of the enterprise. Little 
is known of his antecedents except that he was a native of 
Dorchester, born there in 1588, was a man of strong Puritan 
convictions, and had attended the preaching of Samuel 
Skelton, one of the ministers who afterwards went out in 
1629. A leader thus being available a patent was obtained 
from the Council of New England, March 19, 1628, by 
which the Council 'bargained and sold unto some knights 
and gentlemen about Dorchester, namely, Sir Henry Ros- 
well. Sir John Young, knights, Thomas Southcoat, John 
Humphrey, John Endicott and Simon Whetcomb, gentle- 
men, that part of New England lying between the Merri- 
mac river and the Charles river on the Massachusetts Bay.* 
The preliminary expedition being ready, on the 20th of 
June, thirteen days after Charles L had assented to the 
famous Petition of Right, Endicott sailed from Weymouth 
in the Abigail, Henry Gauden master, arriving at Naum- 
keag on the 6th of September following. He had with him 
Charles Gott, Richard Brackenbury, Richard Davenport, 
and some others destined for active service in the future, 
and was entrusted by the company at home with full 
powers to act in their name till they themselves, as they 
intended, should follow. 

So far as weather was concerned their voyage was 
prosperous, but unfortunately their provisions having been 

T 



274 PILGRIM FATHERS 01 NEW ENGLAND. 

preserved in unwholesome salt, sickness began to prevail 
among the passengers. Reaching land in disabled con- 
dition, and being but imperfectly housed on their arrival, 
these emigrants, like those who went out to Plymouth nine 
years before, began to die off one after another. Endicott in 
his distress sent over to Plymouth to Governor Bradford for 
help, having heard that Samuel Fuller, a deacon of the 
Church and a physician, had ' cured divers by letting blood 
and other means.' Fuller was at once sent to the rescue, and 
his kindly work among the sick brought about a close friend- 
ship between the people of Plymouth and the new-comers 
to Naumkeag — a friendship which resulted in a nearer 
agreement on the question of the government of the Church. 
Endicott's conversations with Fuller led to the removal 
from his mind of certain false impressions as to what sepa- 
ration really meant. Writing to Governor Bradford on 
May II, 1629, he says: 'I acknowledge myself much 
bound to you for your kind love and care in sending Mr. 
Fuller among us, and rejoice much that I am by him 
satisfied touching your judgments of the outward form of 
God's worship. It is, as far as I can gather, no other than 
is warranted by the evidence of truth, and the same which 
I have professed and maintained ever since the Lord in 
mercy revealed Himself unto me ; being far from the 
common report that hath been spread of you touching that 
particular.' Endicott was bent on closer relations still, 
seeking Christian alliance which was to have important 
ecclesiastical results in the future of Massachusetts. In 
the earlier part of the same letter he says to Bradford : ' It 
is a thing not usual, that servants to one Master and of the 
same household should be strangers. I assure you I desire 
it not, nay, to speak more plainly, I cannot be so to you. 
God's people are all marked with one and the same mark, 
and sealed with one and the same seal, and have for the 
main, one and the same heart, guided by one and the same 



ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 27$ 

Spirit of truth ; and where this is there can be no discord, 
nay, here must needs be sweet harmony. And the same 
request (with you) I make unto the Lord that we may, as 
Christian brethren, be united by a heavenly and unfeigned 
love ; bending all our hearts and forces in furthering a 
work beyond our strength, with reverence and fear, fastening 
our eyes always on Him that only is able to direct and 
prosper all our ways.' 

While feelings of brotherhood were thus springing up 
between Endicott's advance party at Salem and the 
Plymouth Plantation, the movement in favour of further 
Puritan emigration to New England was daily growing 
stronger at home. Endicott sent back a good account of 
his voyage and of his first impressions of the country to 
which he had come, and as a consequence more adven- 
turers were disposed to join in the undertaking. Men of 
competent estate, feeling that they had no special employ- 
ment at home and might be serviceable in planting a 
colony abroad, came forward to help on the movement. 
Others of their acquaintance, seeing men such as these of 
good estate joining in the enterprise, were induced to join 
also. Among the men of social standing thus attracted to 
this undertaking were John Winthrop, of Groton, in Suffolk ; 
Isaac Johnson, of Clipsham, in the county of Rutland, 
who had married Lady Arbella, the sister of the Earl of 
Lincoln ; John Humphrey, of the county of Kent, who 
had married another sister ; Matthew Cradock, a wealthy 
London merchant, who became one of the largest contribu- 
tors, and in after years a member of the Long Parliament ; 
Thomas Goffe, also of London ; and Sir Richard Salton- 
stall, of Halifax, nephew of another Sir Richard, who was 
Lord Mayor of London in 1597. 

These men bought of the first comers all their right and 
interest on Massachusetts Bay acquired under the deed of 
March 19, 1628, and being desirous to be something more 

T 2 



276 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

than a mere private trading company, sought for their 
venture the authority of the Crown, so as to make good 
their title, patents having from time to time been granted 
in the most careless and contradictory fashion. An 
important step forward was taken when, on March 4, 
1629, a royal charter was obtained constituting the com- 
pany a legal corporation under the title of the ' Governor 
and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England.' 
The corporation thus formed were to elect annually a 
governor, deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants, who 
were to hold monthly meetings, and in addition general 
meetings four times a year. Matthew Cradock was elected 
as governor, and one of the first things done after his 
•election was to create a second government to be re- 
sident in the colony itself, consisting of a governor, 
deputy-governor, and twelve councillors, three of these 
to be chosen by the planters whom Endicott found 
in the colony when he arrived. The government thus 
constituted was to be free from control on the part of the 
Company at home, both in the matter of legislation and 
the appointment of officers, as though its founders had 
already in view the coming change when the Company 
should no longer exist as a separate corporation, but 
should be merged in the legislature of the colony itself 
/ The ordinance by which it was created provided that 
^ they shall have full power and authority, and are hereby 
authorised by power derived from His Majesty's Letters 
Patent to make, order, and establish all manner of whole- 
some and reasonable orders, laws, statutes, ordinances, 
directions, and instructions not contrary to the laws of the 
realm of England ; a copy of which orders from time to 
time shall be sent to the Company in England.' Land was 
to be allotted, so that each shareholder should have two 
hundred acres for every ;^50 he invested. If he himself 
went over and settled in the colony, in addition to investing 



ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 277 

his money, he was to have fifty acres more for himself and 
fifty for each member of his family. Emigrants who were 
not shareholders were to have an allotment of fifty acres, 
and fifty additional for each servant exported ; the governor 
and council to have power to grant more to such emigrants 
* according to their charge and quality.* 

Holding the question of the religious life to be of primary 
importance, the Company did not overlook provision for the 
spiritual needs of the new settlement in their arrangements. 
In a letter to Endicott, April 17, 1629, acknowledging one 
from him sent over the previous September, they say : 
' For that the propagation of the Gospel is a thing we do 
profess above all to be our aim in settling this plantation, 
we have been careful to make plentiful provision of godly 
ministers, by whose faithful preaching, godly conversation,, 
and exemplary life we trust not only those of our own 
nation will be built up in the knowledge of God, but also 
the Indians may in God's appointed time be reduced to the 
obedience of the Gospel of Christ' The three ministers 
first sent out were Samuel Skelton, a Lincolnshire minister, 
who was chosen because the Company had learnt that 
John Endicott had formerly received much good from his 
ministry ; Francis Higginson, of Leicester ; and Francis 
Bright, of Rayleigh, in Essex. The Company, in sending 
out these men, gave charge to Endicott to accommodate 
them with necessaries, to build houses for them as soon as 
convenient, * and because their doctrine will hardly be well 
esteemed whose persons are not reverenced, we desire that 
both by your own example and by commanding all others 
to do the like, our ministers may receive due honour.' 

All that is known of Skelton, beyond his former con- 
nection with Endicott, is that he was of Clare Hall, 
Cambridge, where he graduated in 161 1. Of Francis 
Higginson we first hear at a meeting of the Company, 
held March 23, 1629, when letters were read from Isaac 



278 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Johnson describing him as an able man, as one ' approved 
for a reverend grave minister, fit for our present occasions,' 
and as willing to go to the plantation. On this John 
Humphrey was requested to ride down to Leicester at 
once, and if he found that Higginson could be ready to go 
in the vessels about to start, and if his removal should be 
consented to by the best affected of the people there, and 
with the approbation of Mr. Hildersham, of Ashby-de-la- 
Zouch, he was then and there to make arrangements with 
him. 

These conditions being met, Higginson prepared to sail 

from Gravesend on the 25th of April. He was the son 

of the vicar of Claybrook, in Leicestershire, where he was 

born in 1587, and where after graduating at Jesus College, 

Cambridge, in 1610, he was associated with his father as 

curate. Eventually, however, he left Claybrook to become 

the vicar of one of the five parish churches of Leicester. 

Here, about the year 1627, he made a decided stand for 

purity of fellowship by refusing to allow immoral_persons 

to come to the Lord's Table. His Puritan proclivities 

soon made him a marked man with the Laudian party, and 

being removed from his living for not conforming to the 

ecclesiastical requirements imposed, the people of the town 

maintained him by one of those lectureships in the Church 

which were the special creation of the Puritan feeling of 

the time. It was while he was thus engaged that John 

Humphrey rode down to Leicester and had that conference 

with him which ended in his consent to go to New England 

at the request of the Company. His removal was felt to be 

a grievous loss by the godly people of the town. In after 

years his son John mentioned in a sermon that before 

leaving England his father gave ' some account of his 

grounds in a great assembly of many thousands at 

Leicester ; ' and that when he and his family set out for 

London, the streets were filled with people who with 



ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 279 

prayers and tears bade them farewell. The reasons for his 
going he gave to the great assembly referred to were that 
he approved of the patent of the Company, which granted 
to the people the right to choose their own rulers, and to 
admit into freedom such as they should think meet, and 
further, because religion was the principal end aimed at in 
the establishment of the plantation, A pamphlet of the 
time, entitled General Considerations for the Plantation of 
Nezv England,' ^ is said to be from his pen. If so, it is 
evident he thought the prospects of religious freedom at 
home to be but dark and gloomy, and that it was the part 
of a wise man to seek for shelter before the storm should 
burst. The Protestants of Bohemia, he thought, might 
serve as a warning, who sat still at home till the Palgrave 
was defeated, the fires of persecution kindled, and the 
Catholic religion thrust by force into the Palatinate. They 
ought not to forget either that only last October the 
Huguenots in Rochelle were reduced by famine and siege, 
and their local privileges cancelled. Experiences like 
these might well teach men to avoid the plague while it 
was foreseen, and not wait till it was making havoc among 
them. Even if the attempt to escape had miscarried, it 
would not have been so disastrous as that backsliding and 
abjuring the truth into which the Protestants of Bohemia 
and their posterity were plunged. With these views 
Francis Higginson decided to leave his fatherland and sail 
for the West. 

Five vessels were to take out him and the party sailing 
with him — the Talbot, a good and strong ship of 300 tons, 
carrying above a hundred planters and provisions for a 
twelvemonth ; the George, another strong ship of 300 tons, 
also carrying fifty-two planters and provisions ; the Lion's 
Whelp, a ' neat and nimble ship of 120 tons,' carr),-ing many 
mariners and above forty planters specially from the town 
^ Reprinted in Yotmg's Chrotiicles (Massachusetts), pp. 271-278. 



28o PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

of Dorchester and the neighbourhood ; the Four Sisters, of 
300 tons, carrying more passengers with cattle and provisions ; 
and, finally, the world-renowned Mayflower, which had thus 
the honour of being concerned in the foundation of the 
settlement of Massachusetts Bay as well as of that of 
the Plymouth plantation. The Governor and Company, in 
sending out this expedition, were much more generous in its 
equipment than v/ere the Merchant Adventurers with the 
settlers at Plymouth. Large supplies of clothing were 
sent out, including 200 suits, doublets, and hose of leather ; 
100 suits of northern ' dussens ' or Hampshire kerseys lined, 
the hose with skins, the doublets with linen of Guildford or 
* Gedlyman ' serges ; 300 plain falling bands such as had 
taken the place of the great ruffs of Elizabeth's time ; 100 
waistcoats of green cotton bound about with red tape ; 100 
Monmouth capes and 100 leather girdles, besides hooks 
and eyes for ' mandilions,' these being garments large and 
full of folds, with which ' 'gainst cold in night did soldiers 
use to wrap.' Besides these quaint and picturesque 17th 
century garments, there were provisions on board sufficient 
for the voyage, and seeds and cereals for use when they 
reached the other side, not forgetting rundlets of Spanish 
wine, and casks of Malaga and Canary. Then besides 
horses and cattle, fishing-nets and fowling-pieces, there 
were equipments of military sort in case of need — drums, 
ensigns, partisans and halberds, swords and belts, corselets, 
pikes and half-pikes, bastard muskets with snaphances 
without rests, and full muskets with matchcocks and rests ; 
they also provided land ordnance for the five forts, including 
culverins, demi-culverins, sakers and iron drakes, with stores 
of powder and shot. 

As men were even of more importance than material, 
those who were skilled in the making of pitch and salt, 
and in planting vines, were enlisted in the service, William 
Sherman having been allowed fourteen days to fetch his 



ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS, 281 

vines from Northampton ; men also skilled in working iron, 
and a surgeon and barber-surgeon were sent out along with 
Thomas Graves of Gravesend, who appears to have been 
a kind of universal genius, professing himself skilled and 
experienced in the discovery and finding out of mines of 
all sorts, iron, lead, copper, and mineral salt ; in making 
fortifications ; in surveying buildings, measuring lands and 
describing a country by map. No wonder the Company 
specially charged Endicott to take advice of this man, 
who had travelled in divers foreign parts, as to where it 
would be best to settle down, fortify and build a town. 

With these artificers and skilled men of various grades 
the Company send over, they say, many religious, discreet, 
and well-ordered persons to be set over the rest, dividing 
them into families, placing some with the ministers, and 
others under such honest men as shall see them well 
educated in their general callings as Christians, and accord- 
ing to their several trades. They prudently remark that 
where so many are being sent out, there may be, in spite of 
all their care, some libertines among them ; if there are, let 
them be corrected, and should they prove incorrigible, let 
them be shipped back again in the Lion's Whelp when she 
returns, for it is better to do that than to keep them in the 
colony as a source of infection and an occasion of scandal. 
' Above all,' they add, ' we pray you be careful that there 
be none in our precincts permitted to do any injury in the 
least kind to the heathen people ; and if any offend in that 
way let them receive due correction.' Should any of the 
Indians claim right of inheritance in any part of the lands 
granted in the patents, ' we pray you endeavour to purchase 
their title, that we may avoid the least scruple of intrusion.' 
Further, ' to the end the Sabbath may be celebrated in a 
religious manner, we appoint that all that inhabit the 
plantation both for the general and particular employments 
may surcease their labour every Saturday throughout the 



282 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

year at three of the clock in the afternoon ; and that they 
spend the rest of that day in catechism and preparations 
for the Sabbath as the ministers shall direct.' Finally, they 
inform Endicott that they have agreed with Lambert 
Wilson, the chirurgeon, that he is to remain in the service 
of the plantation for three years, during which time he is 
not only to be at the service of the planters themselves, but 
also of the Indians, as from time to time he shall be 
directed by the governor. He is also to educate and 
instruct in his art one or more youths fit to learn his 
profession and succeed him — one of these to be the son 
of Francis Higginson the minister, if his father approve 
thereof, the rather because having been educated at the 
Leicester Grammar School he hath been trained in 
literature. 

This general letter of April 17, 1629, was sent over along 
with the Company's patent under the broad seal, and also 
the Company's own seal in silver, which had engraved upon 
it the figure of an Indian with the legend inscribed : ' Come 
over and help us.' This letter was further supplemented 
by one written at Gravesend four days later, while the 
vessels waited there, in which the Company charge the 
settlers that special care be taken that family prayer be 
observed morning and evening, and a watchful eye be held 
over all in each family, and so disorders may be prevented 
and ill weeds nipped before they take too great a head. It 
is well to begin well and let punishment follow infractions 
of law, otherwise government will be looked upon as no 
better than a scarecrow. Their desire is for lenity all that 
may be ; but if necessity arise then the other thing is not 
to be neglected, knowing that correction is ordained for a 
fool's back. Finally, 'we heartily pray you that all be kept 
to labour as the only means to reduce them to civil, yea, 
a godly life, and to keep youth from falling into many 
enormities which by nature we are all too much inclined to. 



ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 283 

God, who alone is able and powerful, enable you to this 
great work, and grant that our chiefest aim may be His 
honour and glory. Thus wishing you all happy and 
prosperous success we end and rest' 

Thus equipped and thus instructed those who went out 
in 1629 set forth, the George about the middle of April, the 
Talbot and Lion's Whelp hoisting sail at Gravesend on the 
morning of the 25th ; and the Four Sisters and the May- 
flower following three weeks later. Francis Higginson, 
who sailed in the Talbot, kept a journal, in which he 
describes the usual experiences, sights and scenes of an 
Atlantic voyage. They had, he says, a pious and Christian- 
like passage, having a company of religious, honest, and 
kind seamen. The shipmaster and his men used every 
night to set their eight and twelve o'clock watches with 
singing a psalm and ' prayer that was not read out of a 
book.' They constantly served God, too, morning and 
evening, by reading and expounding a chapter, singing and 
prayer. The Sabbath also was solemnly kept by preaching 
twice and catechising ; and in times of great need * two 
solemn fasts were observed with gracious eflfect.' Instruc- 
tion as well as delight they received in beholding the 
wonders of the Lord in the deep waters, sometimes seeing 
the sea round them appearing with a terrible countenance, 
as it were full of high hills and deep valleys, and sometimes 
as a most plain and even meadow. Gazing on all the ocean 
sights and scenes new to a landsman, he exclaims : ' Those 
that love their own chimney corner, and dare not go beyond 
their own town's end, shall never have the honour to see 
these wonderful works of Almighty God ! ' 

Writing back in September to old friends in Leicester 
who were purposing to come out and join the settlement, 
he advises them as to what they ought to bring for the 
voyage and for use in the colony. It will be wise for them 
to look ahead, ' for when you are once parted with England 



284 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

you shall meet neither with taverns nor alehouse, nor 
butchers', nor grocers', nor apothecaries' shops to help what 
things you need in the midst of the great ocean, nor when 
you are come to land ; here are yet neither markets nor 
fairs to buy what you want.' 

On arriving at Salem, the name now given to Naum- 
keag, the three ministers entered at once into conference 
with Endicott and the rest of the godly people as to the 
ecclesiastical future of the colony, explaining that for 
themselves they desired to see a Reformed Congregation. 
They then learnt what had already taken place as the 
result of Samuel Fuller's visit and influence, and how the 
people had seen their way to the adoption of those church 
principles in operation in the Plymouth plantation. Both 
Higginson and Skelton seem to have agreed with the 
course already taken, while Francis Bright dissented, and, 
being unwilling to work with them, removed to Charlestown. 
Three weeks after they had landed, a solemn day of fasting 
and prayer was set apart for the choice of a pastor and 
teacher. Some time having been spent in prayer, certain 
questions were then propounded to Higginson and Skelton 
as to their views of a minister's calling. They replied that 
they held that calling to be twofold — first the inward, or 
God's calling, by which the man was endowed with the 
necessary gifts and his heart moved to desire the work ; 
next the outward call which comes from God's people, 
when a company of believers are joined together in cove- 
nant to walk together in the ways of God, and when the 
men thus gathered have a free voice in the choice of their 
officers. These views being regarded as satisfactory, the 
brethren proceeded to election m the freest possible manner, 
except that the voting was confined to the men. Each 
duly qualified member wrote on a slip of paper the name 
of the man whom the Lord moved him to think to be fit 
for a pastor, and in like manner whom he would have for 



ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 285 

teacher. The votes being counted, it was found that 
Skelton was chosen as pastor and Higginson as teacher, 
the difference between the two being explained when John 
Eh'ot tells us that ' Mr. Skelton being farther advanced 
in years was constituted as pastor of Salem Church, Mr. 
Higginson the teacher.' The difference in office was thus 
mainly a question of seniority. Among the abuses charged 
against the Puritans during Bishop Neile's primary visitation 
of the diocese of Lincoln in 1614 was that precedence was 
given to ministers in preaching and at table according to 
age rather than university degree — 'after the German 
fashion the elder minister is held more worthy.' The two 
ministers having signified their acceptance of the choice 
thus made of them, they were then commended to God in 
prayer in the following manner : ' first, Mr. Higginson, with 
three or four of the gravest members of the church, laid 
their hands on Mr. Skelton, using prayer therewith. This 
being done, there was imposition of hands on Mr. Higginson 
also.' Charles Gott, who came over to Salem with Endicott 
in 1628, wrote to Governor Bradford an account of these 
proceedings, which took place on the 20th of July, concluding 
his letter by saying : ' And now, good sir, I hope that you 
and the rest of God's people (who are acquainted with the 
ways of God) with you, will say that here was a right 
foundation laid, and that these blessed servants of the Lord 
came in at the door and not at the window.' 

The service thus described seems like a re-ordination of 
men already ordained ; but the probability is that it was 
not so regarded by the men themselves. The following 
year a similar service was held in the case of Mr. Wilson, 
who was chosen as the minister of Charlestown, and con- 
cerning which Winthrop writes : ' We used imposition of 
hands, but with this protestation by all, that it was only as 
a sign of election and confirmation, not of any intent that 
Mr. Wilson should renounce his ministry he received in 



286 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

England.' ^ Morton, in his Memorial, speaks as if the 
ordination of Higginson and Skelton took place on the 6th 
of August, not on the 20th of July, and that Governor 
Bradford and some others from Plymouth who intended to 
be present, * coming by sea were hindered by cross winds 
that they could not be there at the beginning of the day ; 
but they came into the assembly afterward, and gave them 
the right hand of fellowship, wishing all prosperity and 
all blessedness to such good beginnings.' It is probable, 
however, that Gott's account is the more accurate of the 
two, and that, as he tells us, the 6th of August was appointed 
for another day of humiliation for the choice of elders and 
deacons and ordaining of them ; and when the two ministers 
gave their assent publicly to the Confession and Covenant 
which they themselves had drawn up beforehand. 

This 6th of August being observed as a day of fasting 
and prayer, there were sermons and prayers by both 
ministers, and towards the end of the day the Confession 
and Covenant were solemnly read and assented to. It was 
clearly stated at the time, however, that these were only 
acknowledged as a direction pointing unto that faith and 
covenant contained in the Scriptures, and therefore no man 
was held to be bound by the mere form of words, but only 
to the substance, end, and scope of the matter contained 
therein. Mather, in his Magnalia (I., 18), gives us this 
covenant made at Salem, in which they covenant with the 
Lord and one another to walk together in all His ways so 
far as He reveals Himself to them in His Word, and this 
through the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
avouching the Lord to be our God, and ourselves to be 
His people in the truth and simplicity of our spirits ; to 
give themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ to be governed 
by Him, resolving to cleave unto Him alone for life and 

^ Winthrop's History of New Eiig'land, 1 630-1 649. Edited by 
James Savage, 2 vols. Boston, 1853. 



ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 287 

glory, and to reject all contrary ways, canons, and con- 
stitutions of men in His worship ; to walk with their 
brethren in all brotherliness, avoiding jealousy, suspicion, 
and censure ; to avoid all occasions of dishonouring Christ 
in the church ; to study the advancement of the Gospel in 
all truth and peace, not slighting sister churches, but taking 
counsel of them as need shall be ; to carry themselves in 
all lawful obedience to those that are over them in church 
and commonwealth ; to approve themselves to the Lord in 
their worldly callings, shunning idleness as the bane of any 
State, and not to deal hardly or oppressively with any ; 
and, finally, promising to the best of their ability to teach 
their children and servants the knowledge of God and of 
His will that they may serve Him also. This covenant 
thus accepted that day, and afterwards renewed on special 
occasions from time to time, became the basis of church 
fellowship, some being admitted into the church by ex- 
pressing their assent thereto, others by answering questions 
publicly propounded, or by presenting the substance thereof 
in writing, or by giving their religious experience and 
conviction in their own way. 

The step thus taken was however not taken unanimously, 
as after events showed. Francis Bright, one of the three 
ministers sent out, withdrew, and went to Charlestown ; 
and two members of the Council, John and Samuel Browne, 
' men of estates and men of parts and port in the place,' 
openly expressed their dissatisfaction that the ministers did 
not use the Book of Common Prayer, did not administer 
the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper with the 
ceremonies usually observed in England, and had expressed 
their intention of denying admission to the Lord's Table 
of scandalous persons. Proceeding from protest to action, 
they gathered a company for worship separate from the 
public assembly, conducting the service according to the 
order of the Book of Common Prayer. Endicott, as 



\X 



288 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Governor, seeing that disturbance was growing out of this, 
summoned the two brothers before him. In the course of 
their examination they charged the two ministers with 
departing from the orders of the Church of England, and 
with being Separatists, who would soon become Ana- 
baptists. Skelton and Higginson made answer that they 
were neither Separatists nor Anabaptists, that they were 
not separating from the Church of England, or from the 
ordinances of God therein, but only from the corruptions 
and disorders which had sprung up in that Church in 
recent years. They had come away from their native 
land, they said, after suffering much on behalf of their 
convictions, that they might get away from the Prayer 
Book and the ceremonies, and being now in a place where 
they could have their liberty, they neither could nor would 
use them, judging as they did that the imposition of these 
things was a sinful corruption of the worship of God. 
Having duly weighed this answer, the governor and 
council and the generality of the people did well approve 
thereof, and finding John and Samuel Browne very resolute 
in a course tending, as they believed, to mutiny and faction, 
they plainly told them that New England was no place for 
them ; and, acting upon this conviction, shipped them back 
to England the same year, the two brothers breathing out 
threatenings as they went. 

The course thus pursued by Endicott and the council in 
this case, and the similar proceedings taken at Plymouth 
in reference to Lyford and Oldham, as well as by Governor 
Winthrop in later years, have again and again been con- 
demned as intolerant, and as grossly inconsistent on the 
part of men who had themselves fled from intolerance 
at home. But as so impartial an historian as Professor 
Gardiner has pointed out/ their own religious liberty would 
have been in danger if a population had grown up around 
^ History of England^ vol. vii. 156. 



ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 289 

them ready to offer a helping hand to any repressive 
measures adopted against them by the Government at 
home. As he truly says, the objection to toleration on the 
part of the men of New England was not merely intel- 
lectual. The question as it presented itself to them at 
that particular time was not whether they were to tolerate 
others, but whether they were to give to others the oppor- 
tunity of being intolerant to themselves. The cases, 
therefore, are not parallel between a strong government 
harrying out of the land a little community of con- 
scientious men, far too weak to be dangerous, and that 
little community fighting as for dear life to guard the 
liberty which has cost them so much, and which might 
easily be taken from them again. 

On the surface of the narrative it seems strangely incon- 
sistent that the men who went out to New England with 
Endicott in 1628, with Skelton and Higginson in 1629, 
and, if we may anticipate for a moment, with Winthrop 
in 1630, while expressing themselves with such ardent 
affection towards the Church of England, and such dislike 
of Separatism as they did when they left the old country, 
should so soon have made the fundamental changes in 
church life we find they did. The explanation is not to 
be found altogether from their having come into the near 
neighbourhood and under the influence of the Separatists 
of Plymouth Plantation, John Cotton, who went out in 
1634, speaking of the church at Salem as organised under 
Endicott, Skelton, and Higginson, writes thus : ' How far 
they of Salem take up any practice from Plymouth I do 
not know. Sure I am that Mr. Skelton was studious ot 
that way before he left Lincolnshire.' He adds that those 
who really knew the spirit of these men 'would easily 
discern that they were not such as would be leavened by 
vicinity of neighbours, but by the divinity of the truth of 
God shining forth from the Word.' The real explanation 

U 



290 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

lies deeper. First, it must be noticed that the men them- 
selves never admitted or supposed that, in making the 
changes they did, they ceased to be Church of England 
men. In a brotherly explanation they gave to friends at 
home, they granted that on going into exile they began to 
search and try their ways, and came to see that some 
things which in the beginning of their ministry they had 
regarded as matters of indifference, or had practised with- 
out serious thought, when weighed in the balances of the 
sanctuary had not sufficient warrant in the Word of God to 
justify them in establishing them under new conditions in 
a new country. It must also be remembered that the 
whole question of episcopal government had not at that 
time taken the definite position in the Church of England 
which it has since assumed. The most prominent bishops 
and divines of the early part of Elizabeth's reign were in 
close sympathy and friendly intercourse with the Swiss 
Reformers, and it is well known that under the influence 
of Cartwright great numbers of the clergy were in favour 
of a Presbyterian form of church government, and even 
proceeded to set up that system openly in the parish 
churches of Northamptonshire and Warwickshire. Even 
while practising Presbyterianism, they none the less claimed 
to belong to the National Church. Till the time of Laud 
himself the doctrine of the divine right of episcopacy was 
a comparative novelty, received by a minority only even 
among Churchmen themselves. It was first broached 
by Bancroft, in his sermon at Paul's Cross in 1588, was 
even by him suggested rather than asserted, and that 
rather as an anti-Puritan polemic to the claim to divine 
right which was being made for Presbyterianism than as 
expressing the matured and solid conviction of the main 
body of Churchmen. When Lord Burleigh referred Ban- 
croft's statement to Dr. Hammond, then chancellor of the 
diocese of London, for his opinion, in a letter still in 



ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 291 

existence, he replied that the authority of bishops was 
derived solely from the statute passed in the twenty-fifth 
year of the reign of Henry VIII., and recited in the first 
year of Elizabeth's reign ; that it was not reasonable on 
their part to make any other claim ; and that ' if it had 
pleased Her Majesty with the wisdom of the realm to have 
used no bishops at all, we could not have complained 
justly of any defect in our Church.' ^ Long years after 
this when Laud himself, in his exercise for the degree of 
B.D. at Oxford, took up the position that ' there could be 
no true Church without diocesan bishops,' Heylin tells us 
that he was ' shrewdly rattled ' by Dr. Holland, the Regius 
Professor of Divinity, * as one that did cast a bone of 
discord betwixt the Church of England and the Reformed 
Churches beyond the seas ; ' and his thesis was denounced 
as * a novel Popish position.' Dr. Washburn, an American 
episcopal clergyman of our own day, who would naturally 
regret the setting aside of episcopacy in the early New 
England churches, yet candidly admits that ' there was 
not one leading divine from Hooper to Hooker who ever 
claimed more than historic and primitive usage as the 
ground of episcopal authority, or pretended that it was of 
the essence of a Church. . . . Not only so, no notion of an 
exclusive episcopacy, even to later times, when Bancroft 
and Laud had naturalised it, gained footing as a Church 
principle.' ^ 

As with the question of episcopal government so with 
the use of the Prayer Book, the wearing of the surplice and 
the practice of various ceremonies ; they contended that 
these were still open questions and that the views they 
held on these points were more in accordance with the 
principles of the Reformation than were those of their 
opponents ; that in fact they were the true representatives 

1 Hatfield MSS., Nov. 4, 1588, No. 754. 

^ Epochs in Church History. By Dr. E. A. Washburn, p. 120. 

U 2 



292 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

of the National Church of England. It must be noted 
further that they had adopted two principles in relation to 
church life which carried them further in the direction of 
Separatism than they themselves were aware of. In reply 
to their brethren in England they contended that Chris- 
tian character was indispensable to church life. Francis 
Higginson, as we have seen, even in Leicester days had 
made a stand for purity of fellowship, and refused to allow 
immoral persons to come to the Lord's Table ; and in New 
England they acknowledged that their practice differed 
from that of the Reformed Churches in that ' we receive to 
our churches only visible saints and believers ; in common 
with many good men we desire all separation of the 
precious from the vile. This day hath discovered what 
kind of people are to be found everywhere in the parishes 
of England. Can light and darkness, Christ and Belial 
agree together ? Popish and Episcopal enemies cleave 
together in our church of Christ with the saints of God.' 

The second principle which carried them further in the 
direction of Separatism than they realised grew out of the 
first ; it was that of ' giving discipline as well as other 
ordinances to particular churcheS) not subjecting them to 
any government out of themselves, but only to take the 
brotherly counsel and help of one another.' ' If,' said they, 
'the Church be pure and have such officers as the New 
Testament requires, we need not fear to betrust the Church 
with that power which we conceive Christ hath given 
to the same, other churches watching over them and 
counselling them in the Lord. The reforming the material 
of a church and the recalling of the power of government 
to the church tends much to further the work of reforma- 
tion, and in no way hinders the same.' 

Thus while they protested they were not Separatists, 
but heart and soul true Church of England men, they had 
adopted the two main foundation principles on which 



ARRIVAL OF NEW NEIGHBOURS. 293 

Separatism was based, viz. that to be true members of a 
Christian Church men must be Christians, and if they are 
Christians they are illuminated by the Spirit of God, and 
therefore capable of self-government. The difference between 
the men of Salem and the men of Plymouth lay in this, 
that the former retained the State-church principle in spirit, 
the latter did not. When Francis Higginson was desired to 
draw up a Confession of Faith, seeing that the wilderness 
in which they were might be looked upon as a place of 
liberty and they might in time be troubled with erroneous 
spirits, * therefore they did put in one article into the 
Confession of Faith on purpose about the duty and power 
of the magistrate in matters of religion.' This principle 
once adopted was in after years extended. John Cotton 
contended for a scriptural theocracy. To secure the best 
legislation they deemed it right to limit the political 
franchise to men of consistent religious character, united 
in church fellowship. Church-membership was made the 
essential pre-requisite to citizenship, and the formation of 
churches came under the direct supervision of the civic 
authority. Discipline was no doubt for the most part 
observed in the Christian society without external inter- 
ference, but when the censures of the Church were dis- 
regarded, the State stepped in and imposed the penalty of 
political disfranchisement, fine or imprisonment. In this 
way came about the troubles and intolerance of a later 
time. 

But during the period between 1629 and 1634 this 
was not foreseen, and the men who acted with Endicott, 
Skelton and Higginson contended that the course they 
took was the only course possible to them. It had become 
impossible for them to remain at home. ' Was it not a 
time when human worship and human inventions were 
grown to such an intolerable height that the consciences of 
God's saints, enlightened by the truth, could no longer bear 



294 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

them ? Was not the power of the tyrannical prelates so 
great that, like a strong current, it carried all down stream 
before it ? Did not the hearts of men generally fail them ? 
Might we not say, "This is not our resting place?". We 
might, no doubt, have remained at home and found a way 
to have filled the prisons, but whether we were called to- 
that when there was an open door of liberty placed before 
us we leave to be considered. The Lord Himself knew 
the motives which animated us in going abroad. He that 
seeth in secret and rewardeth openly knew what prayers 
and tears had been poured out to God, by many alone, and 
in days of fasting and prayer, by God's servants together 
for His counsel, direction and blessing in this work. Many 
longings and pantings of heart had there been in many 
after the Lord Jesus to see His goings in the sanctuary ; 
and this liberty of New England we have looked upon 
and thankfully received from God as the fruit of these 
prayers and desires.' 



( 295 



XL 

MASSACHUSETTS BAY AND CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 

Already two bands of settlers had gone out to Massa- 
chusetts in 1628 and 1629 ; a still larger expedition was to 
follow in 1630. But there was an important preliminary- 
question to be settled. Those who composed the Massa- 
chusetts Bay Company were not content that it should be a 
mere trading adventure, having its headquarters in London, 
and liable at any time to be interfered with by the Crown. 
The vision of a Free State across the sea invested with 
the prerogatives of self-government rose before them as a 
possibility to be realised. But how to realise it without 
arousing the ever-watchful jealousy of Laud and the king 
was the difficulty which at once presented itself. This 
difficulty was met by the adoption of a resolution which, on 
the face of it, appeared innocent enough, but which meant 
more than appeared. At a general court of the Company, 
held July 28, 1629, the governor, Matthew Cradock, 
suggested that for the purpose of inducing persons of 
worth and quality to transplant themselves and their 
families to the new settlement, and for other weighty reasons 
not mentioned but perfectly well understood, it was expe- 
dient to ' transfer the government of the plantation to those 
that shall inhabit, and not to continue the same in sub- 
ordination to the Company here as now it is.' This 
important matter was, after due debate, left till the next 
meeting to each man's private consideration, the strictest 
secrecy to be observed meanwhile. Before that next 
meeting, however, Sir Richard Saltonstall, John Winthrop, 



296 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Thomas Dudley, Isaac Johnson, and eight other governors 
met privately at Cambridge and bound themselves by 
written agreement, ' on the word of a Christian and in the 
presence of God, who is the searcher of all hearts,' that 
they would be ready by the ist of March to embark them- 
selves and their families for the plantation, provided that 
by the end of September the whole government of the 
plantation's patent be by order of the court legally trans- 
ferred and established to remain with those who shall 
inhabit the plantation. This was on the 26th of August, 
and three days later, at a formal court of governors, the 
provision thus laid down was agreed to by general consent 
and an order to that effect drawn up. The practical result \ 
of this order was to place the entire control of affairs in the \ 
hands of the ten members of the Company, who were them- 
selves going out to the colony, and therefore interested in / 
its future. 

As Cradock was not going out, it was necessary under 
this arrangement to choose as governor some one who was. 
Therefore, at a court held on the 20th of October, ' having 
received extraordinary great commendations of Mr. John 
Winthrop both for his integrity and sufficiency,' he was, 
'with a general vote and full consent of this court, by 
erection of hands, chosen to be governor for the ensuing 
year, to begin on the present day.' The election thus made 
speedily justified the expectations formed of it, and was 
repeated no fewer than eleven times in the after-history of 
the colony. Governor Winthrop is one of the great names 
in American history, taking its place in their temple of fame 
side by side with that of Washington himself Descended 
of an ancient and honourable family in Suffolk, he was 
born at Groton Manor-house, near Sudbury, in 1588. 
Trained to the law, a member of the Inner Temple, and 
subsequently one of the attorneys of the Court of Wards 
and Liveries, he was at the same time a typical example of 



MASS A CHUSE TTS BAV&- CONNECT/CUT VALLE Y. 297 

the grave and earnest country gentleman of Puritan times. 
Sorrowful experience of life had in his case chastened to a 
deeper seriousness a nature early inclined to serious thought, 
for when only twenty-eight he was for the second time left 
a widower with six motherless children. His third marriage 
with Margaret Tyndal, in 1618, brought into his home the 
brightness and charm of sweet Puritan womanhood at a 
time when his spirit had become too sombre for so young 
a man. Early in life, when only ten years old, he had, he 
says, some notions of God, prayed to Him in danger, and 
* found manifest answer ; ' at twelve ' began to have some 
more savour of religion, and thought he had more under- 
standing in divinity than many of his years;' and at 
eighteen, under the ministry of Ezekiel Culverwell, the 
Word came home to him with power, he having found 
only light before. Now came he ' to some peace and 
comfort in God and in His ways ; loved a Christian and 
the very ground he trod upon ; honoured a faithful minister 
in his heart and could have kissed his feet ; had an insati- 
able thirst after the Word of God, and could not miss a 
good sermon though many miles off, especially of such as 
did search deep into the conscience.' As his character 
matured his cheerfulness increased : ' Now could my soul 
close with Christ and rest there with sweet content, so 
ravished with His love as that I desired nothing nor 
feared anything, but was filled with joy unspeakable and 
glorious, and with a spirit of adoption could now cry " My 
Father" with more confidence.' When riding along the 
country roads to London ' it pleased God that I now made 
great use of my time both in praying, singing, and medi- 
tatingwith good intention and much comfort ; my meditation 
being often as to how the Spirit of God reveals the love of 
God to us and causeth us to love Him again ; how He 
unites all the faithful in deed and in affection ; how He 
opens our understanding in the mysteries of the Gospel 



298 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

and makes us believe and obey. I found great sweetness 
therein, it shortened my way and lightened all such troubles 
and difficulties as I was wont to meet w^ith.' 

As the times grew more and more ominous and men 
were sent to the Tower or the Fleet for resisting an uncon- 
stitutional loan, or were harassed in the High Commission 
Court for refusing conformity to what they deemed super- 
stitious worship, Winthrop began to fear for his country 
and to think of leaving it. In a letter to his wife in the 
spring of 1629 he says : ' The Lord hath admonished, 
threatened, corrected and astonished us, yet we grow worse 
and worse. He hath smitten all the other churches before 
our eyes, and hath made them to drink of the bitter cup of 
tribulation even unto death. We saw this and humbled 
not ourselves to turn from our evil ways .... I am verily 
persuaded God will bring some heavy affliction upon this 
land and that speedily. Yet He will not forsake us ; 
though He correct us with the rods of men, yet if He take 
not His mercy and loving-kindness from us we shall be 
safe. He only is all-sufficient ; if we have Him we have all 
things.' Further, for economic reasons, he was of opinion 
that emigration had become a necessity. Even in those 
days men were talking of surplus population in England. 
Winthrop writes : ' This land grows weary of her inhabi- 
tants, so as man who is most precious of all creatures is 
here more vile and base than the earth we tread upon, and 
of less price among us than a horse or a sheep .... We 
use the authority of law to hinder the increase of the people 
as by urging a statute against cottages and inmates ; and 
thus it is come to pass that children, servants, and neigh- 
bours, especially if ihey be poor, are counted the greatest 
burdens, which, if things were right, would be the chiefest 
earthly blessings. The whole earth is the Lord's garden 
and He hath given it to the sons of men .... why then 
should we stand striving here for places of habitation and 



MASSACHUSETTS BAY &- CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 299 

in the meantime suffer a whole continent, as fruitful and 
convenient for the use of man, to lie waste without any 
improvement ? ' 

It may easily be supposed there were not wanting zealous 
friends anxious to retain men like John Winthrop at home. 
His neighbour, Robert Ryece, the Suffolk antiquary, pleaded 
that ' the Church and Commonwealth here at home hath 
more need of your best ability in these dangerous times 
than any remote plantation.' He suggested that nothing 
was easier than to be misled by fancy-drawn pictures of 
foreign lands. ' The pipe goeth sweet till the bird be in the 
net,' and his neighbour who is in the forties should remember 
that ' plantations are for young men that can endure all 
pains and hunger.'^ These pleadings, written August 12, 
1629, came too late, for, under date July 28, John Winthrop 
has the following entry : ' My brother Downing and myself, 
riding into Lincolnshire by Ely, my horse fell under me in 
a bog in the fens, so as I was almost to the waist in water ; 
but the Lord preserved me from further danger — blessed 
be His name.' This ride into Lincolnshire meant that he 
had been to Sempringham or Tattershall Castle in earnest 
conference with Isaac Johnson, John Humphrey, Thomas 
Dudley and others of the Boston men, about the New 
England scheme. On the 26th August he was one of the 
twelve who signed the solemn agreement entered into at 
Cambridge ; and, on the 20th October, he was, as we have 
seen, chosen as the first governor to be resident in the 
colony. 

On March 23, 1630, Winthrop and his associates sailed 
from Southampton in four vessels ; the Arbella, the Jewel, 
the Ambrose and the Talbot ; two others preceded 
them in February and March, while ten others, including 
the Mayflower among them, followed in May and June. 

1 Life and Letters of John Winthrop. By Robert C. Winthrop. 
Boston, 1864. 



300 riLCRLM FATIIERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Touching at Yarmouth, in the Isle of Wight, on the 7th of 
April they issued a document entitled ' The humble request 
of his majesty's loyal subjects' to the rest of their Brethren 
in and of the Church of hjigland ' for the obtaining of their 
prayers,' promising in return, 'so far as God shall enable 
us, to give ] lini no rest on your bchalfs, wishing our heads 
and hearts may be fountains of tears for )'our everlasting 
welfare when we shall be in our poor cottages in the 
wilderness.' Leaving Yarmouth on the 8th of April, and 
passing the Scilly Isles on the iith, they reached land on 
the American side on the 12th of June. The following 
winter Thomas Dudley wrote to the Countess of Lincoln 
an account of their voyage and of what they saw when they 
landed. He can only do it rudely, he says, 'having yet no 
table, nor other room to write in, than by the fireside, upon 
my knee, in this sharp winter.' Writing in this colonial 
fashion he tells her that seventeen vessels had arrived safe 
in New ICngland, and that the four in which Winthrop and 
his companions had sailed had made a long, troublesome 
and costly voyage, being all wind-bound at starting and 
hindered by contrary winds after they set sail, being 
scattered with mists and tempests so that few of them 
arrived together. They had scarcely lost sight of the 
luiglish coast when they descried from the mast-head 
eight sail astern of them. They had been warned before 
leaving Yarmouth that ten ]''rench vessels were waiting for 
them, these surely were they ! Preparations were at once 
made for action ; Lady Arbella and the other women and 
children were removed to the lower deck to be out of 
danger, gun-room and gun-deck were cleared, hammocks 
taken down, ordnance loaded, powder-chests and fireworks 
made ready, every man was armed and written down for 
his quarter ; ' and for an experiment our captain shot a 
ball of wildfire fastened to an arrow out of a crossbow, 
which burnt in the water a good time. All things being 



MASSACHUSETTS TiA V &- CONNECTICUT VATLK K 301 

thus fitted wc went to prayer upon the upper deck-. It was 
much to sec how cheerful and comfortable all the company 
appeared ; not a woman or child that shov/ed fear, thourd) 
all dirl apprehend the dan^^^er to have been ^rcat. Our 
trust was in the Lord of Hosts and the coura;jc of our 
captain who tacked about and stood to meet them.* It was 
a false alarm ; the suspected enemies turned out to be 
friends ; ' so when wc drew near, every ship (as they met) 
saluted each other ; and so (God be praised; our fear and 
danger was turned into mirth and friendly entertainment.' * 
The rest of their adventures were for the most part such 
as are usually met with on an Atlantic voyage ; on the 
seventieth day out land was seen, on the seventy-second 
day ' there came a smell of the shore, like the smell of a 
garden,' and on the seventy-sixth day, by Saturday the 12th 
of June, the Arbella came to anchor a little within the 
islands. The Pilgrim P'athcrs landed in the depth of 
winter, these their successors in the height of summer, and 
* most of our people went on shore upon the land of Cape 
Ann which lay very near us and gathered store of flne 
strawberries.' 

Winthrop, on landing at Salem, at once assumed office 
as governor of the colony. It was a position of grave 
responsibility, for .something like a thousand persons were 
added to its population about the time of his arrival, and a 
second thousand came shortly afterwards, so that before 
long there were from tv/o to three thousand people with a 
governor and legislature of their own, engaged in erecting 
towns and villages and preparing the way for the great 
republic that was to be. Moreover it was a time of sore 
discouragement v/hen the new governor entered upon hi.s 
office. ' We found the colony,' says Dudley, * in a sad and 
unexpected condition, above eighty of them being dead 
the winter before, and many of those alive b®ing weak and 
' Winthrop's History of Nevj England, \. 0,. 7. 



302 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

sick, all the corn and bread amongst them all hardly suffi- 
cient to feed them a fortnight.' The-nevv comers therefore 
had from the first to feed the settlers out of their stores as 
well as themselves. Winthrop came to be looked upon as 
the Joseph unto whom the whole of the people repaired 
when their corn failed them ; and the story was told in 
after years how that, six months after his arrival, as he was 
in the act of giving out to a poor man the last handful of 
meal in the barrel, a ship with stores arrived at the harbour's 
mouth. A hundred and eighty bond-servants also, who had 
been brought out by Endicott at a cost of from i^i6 to i^2o 
each, had to be set at liberty for the simple reason that food 
could not be found for them. 

Like other colonists since their time, Winthrop and his 
companions found, on their arrival, that the reports which 
had reached them at home had been too highly coloured, 
Dudley speaks of the 'too large commendations of the 
country and the commodities thereof.' He says also : 
' Salem, when we landed, pleased us not ; ' since this was 
the case, further explorations were made about the bay, 
with the result that the people planted themselves dis- 
persedly, some at Charlestown on the north side of the 
Charles river, others at Boston on the south side ; others 
again at Medford, Watertown, Roxbury and Dorchester. 
Winthrop himself settled first of all at Charlestown, but 
presently his new timber-house was transferred across the 
river to Boston, which, in a kind of informal way, became 
from that time the capital. Within a year of their arrival 
there were no fewer than eight separate settlements dotted 
along the shores of the bay from Salem to Dorchester, 
Watertown, five miles up the river from Charlestown, being 
the farthest settlement. 

During that year heavy sorrows befell the little com- 
munity. Winthrop's own son, Henry, was accidentally 
drowned at Salem, and under date September 30th the 



MASS A CHUSE TTS BAY &- CONNECTICUT VALLE V. 303 

governor has this sorrowful entry: 'About two in the 
morning Mr. Isaac Johnson died ; his wife, the Lady Arbella, 
of the house of Lincoln, being dead about one month before. 
He was a holy man and wise and died in sweet peace, 
leaving some part of his substance to the colony.' Of 
Lady Arbella, Cotton Mather quaintly says that she left 
an earthly paradise to encounter the sorrows of a wilderness 
for the entertainments of a pure worship in the house ot 
God ; and then left that wilderness for paradise, taking 
New England on her way to heaven. Earlier also in the 
same month Francis Higginson, to their great grief, was 
taken from them, and also William Gager, * a right godly 
man, a skilful chirurgeon, and one of the deacons of the 
congregation.' Dudley estimated that of those who came 
over no fewer than two hundred passed away between 
April and December. Some also returned home, but the 
rest remained brave and undaunted. Winthrop, writing to 
his wife, piously says : ' The Lord is pleased still to humble 
us ; yet He mixes so many mercies with His corrections, 
as we are persuaded He will not cast us off, but in His due 
time will do us good, according to the measure of our afflic- 
tions. He stays but till He hath purged our corruptions, 
healed the hardness and error of our hearts and stripped us 
of our vain confidence in this arm of flesh, that He may 
have us rely wholly upon Himself. . . . We may not look 
at great things here. It is enough that we shall have 
heaven, though we should pass through hell to it. We 
here enjoy God and Jesus Christ. Is not this enough ? I 
do not repent my coming ; and if I were to come again, I 
would not have altered my course, though I had foreseen 
all these afflictions.' 

As the plantation grew to be a state, and various towns 
arose, the problem of government for a scattered community 
came to be dealt with. The legislature at first was, as we 
have seen, that of the general court of the Massachusetts 



304 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Bay Company transferred to New England. The first 
movement was in the direction of an oh"garchical govern- 
ment. For in October, 1630, the legislative rights were 
transferred from the court of the freemen to the governor, 
deputy-governor and assistants, and at the same time the 
election of the governor was handed over from the freemen 
to the assistants.^ This tendency to centralisation was 
checked, as it has been again and again in our history by 
the pecuniary needs of government. In the month of 
August, 1630, the authorities learnt from recent vessels 
coming from London and Amsterdam, that the French 
were making preparations of hostile kind against the colony. 
It was resolved, therefore, to erect frontier fortifications at 
Newtown, to pay for which a tax of £60 was assessed upon 
each of the various settlements by order of the governor 
and his assistants. When the levy came to be made at 
Watertown, the freemen there objected on the old sub- 
stantial constitutional ground that Englishmen cannot be 
rightfully taxed, except with their own consent, and they 
maintained that the power to tax and to make laws is 
properly vested in the whole body of freemen. These men 
of Watertown seem not to have been unreasonably stubborn, 
for on being summoned to Boston and admonished, they 
withdrew their opposition. Still their protest was the 
manifestation of the independent spirit which in the next 
century brought about the Revolution, and even at the time 
was not without important results. For the following year 
the powers of government were more formally defined, and 
it was enacted by a general court that the whole body of 
freemen should elect the governor, deputy-governor, and 
assistants. There was also an extension of self-government 
in the arrangement that every town should send two repre- 
sentatives to advise the governor and assistants on the 
question of taxation. These changes following upon the 
^ Records^ i- 79- 



MA SSA CHUSE TTS BAY &- CONNECTIC UT VA LLE Y. 305 

Watertown protest may have been merely a coincidence, 
but were more probably a consequence. 

During 1633, no further change in the government seems 
to have been made ; but in 1634 the freemen in each town 
elected three representatives, who, twenty-four in number, 
presented themselves at the general court, demanded to see 
the patent, and maintained that by that instrument the 
power of making laws was vested in the whole body of 
freemen. The governor, on the other hand, pleaded that 
those who framed the patent had never contemplated so 
large a body of freemen, and that the colony did not 
possess the necessary materials for a house of deputies. 
This conference was not in vain. Before the court broke 
up the representatives of the freemen had obtained full 
powers of election and legislation ; and henceforth there 
were to be four courts a year, at one of which the whole 
body of freemen were to elect the officers of their little 
commonwealth ; and at the other three the representatives 
of the various towns were to legislate, make grants of land, 
and transact other necessary public business. 

About the same time another question arose, which, in 
miniature, was not unlike that which arises as to the 
respective powers of the Lords and Commons in the 
English Parliament. The relations between the governor 
and assistants on the one hand, and the deputies from the 
various towns on the other, and also the distribution of 
power between them, had remained undefined. At first 
they all sat in one chamber and deliberated together ; but 
in 1634 the two bodies came into conflict upon a project 
voted upon, on which it appeared that of the deputies 
twenty to five were in its favour, while it was negatived by 
the assistants, of whom only two besides the governor 
supported it. Then arose, of necessity, the question as to 
the legislative powers of the two bodies, and as to whether 
the consent of both was necessary to a valid enactment. 

X 



3o6 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

The question was, however, set at rest the follownig year 
for a while by the assistants giving way to the views of the 
deputies. 

While freedom was slowly broadening down in one 
direction it was being seriously narrowed in another. A 
law was enacted disastrous alike both to religion and 
politics, the consequences of which were felt for many years 
to come. With the view of securing Christian government 
in the state, it was decided no man should be a freeman of 
the colony unless he were a member of some church. Then 
after church-membership was thus made a necessary quali- 
fication for voting at town meetings, an Act was passed 
granting to the towns the right of dividing their lands, 
electing constables and surveyors, and of enforcing their 
orders by a fine of twenty shillings. So that non-church 
members were practically disfranchised, and yet absolute 
control of their secular interests was handed over to men 
whose one qualification was that they happened to be in 
church fellowship. Here was the problem of state and 
church in its acutest form — on the one hand offering 
unworthy inducements to a religious profession, and on the 
other creating an element of bitterness and discontent in 
the colony. Non-members of churches were not excluded 
from the territory-, or relieved of the oath of allegiance 
or freed from civic duty, but their citizenship was unjustly 
maimed and incomplete. It is not difficult to forecast the 
result of such an arrangement. 

Still, states as well as men have to learn by their mistakes, 
and in spite of mistakes the Massachusetts Company steadily 
prospered. By the year 1634 nearly four thousand English- 
men had come over, and some twenty villages on or near 
the shores of the bay had been founded. Permanent houses 
and bridges were erected ; roads and fences made ; farms 
were beginning to be remunerative, an increasing trade in 
timber, furs and salted fish was being carried on with the 



MASS A CHUSETTS BA V <b' CONNECTICUT VALLE Y. 307 

mother country, and 4000 goats and 1 500 head of cattle 
were grazing in the pastures. In other directions also 
progress was being made. Political meetings were held, 
justice was administered by magistrates after English pre- 
cedents ; and religious services were conducted by a score 
of ministers who were men of education — nearly all of them 
graduates of Cambridge or Oxford, and most of them 
having held livings in the Church of England. It is 
estimated that between 1630 and 1639 the number of 
university men who went to Massachusetts from the mother 
country had increased to between sixty and seventy, three- 
fourths of these remaining within that colony, and that by 
1647 their number had mounted up to at least ninety. 
These men conserved the interests of religion and learning 
till the colleges of Harvard and Yale commenced their 
great career, and thus in New England life * the guiding 
and directing force was supplied by an element which was 
itself moulded on the banks of the Cam and the Isis, under 
the influence and refinements of the best culture which the 
England of that day could give.' ^ 

Not only were the leaders of the colony men of university 
training but also men of strong individuality of character 
and native force. We have already seen the sort of men 
Winthrop and Endicott and Johnson were, it will be 
instructive and interesting to come into the company of 
others of the makers of New England. Foremost among 
these stands the name of John Cotton, a native of Derby, 
where he was born in 1585, and who at the early age of 
thirteen entered Trinity College, Cambridge, from which 
he migrated to Emmanuel, of which he became fellow and 
tutor. At twenty-three he made a reputation by the funeral 
sermon in Latin he preached for Dr. Some, Master of 
Peterhouse. Like John Robinson he was one of those 

^ The hifluence of the English Universities in the Development of 
Neio England. By Franklin B. Dexter. 

X 2 



3o8 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Cambridge men who came under the powerful spiritual 
influence of William Perkins, the Puritan preacher at St.. 
Mary's. This influence for a while he tried to resist,, 
smothering his convictions from a fear that if he became a 
godly man it would spoil him for being a learned man. 
God's truth was, however, mightier than he, and through 
great storm and struggle of soul, he came forth at length 
one of the most spiritual, as well as one of the most intel- 
lectually able preachers of his time. In 1612 he entered 
upon a sphere of service worthy of his powers, for in that 
year he became vicar of the noblest parish church in 
England, that of St. Botolph, whose lofty tower is at once 
the landmark and the pride of Boston town. From the first 
he impressed men with a sense of power, some evidence of 
which comes to us from official sources. Among the 
manuscripts in the possession of the Dean and Chapter of 
Lincoln Cathedral there has been preserved a description 
by a contemporary of the primary visitation of the diocese 
by Bishop Neile in 1614, which is interesting as giving life- 
like sketches of the men and the time, and as setting John 
Cotton before us as he was when he had been two years 
vicar of Boston.^ The account was probably drawn up by the 
bishop's registrar as the bishop went through the different 
archdeaconries of the diocese, which at that time extended 
from the Ilumber to the Thames, the visitation being held 
at seventeen different centres. At Luton Mr. Rawlinson 
preached an eloquent and excellent sermon, but was ' too 
curious in assigning the place of the body of Elijah before 
the coming of Christ ; ' at Huntingdon Mr. Hearne preached 
* a very acute and witty sermon ' on three sorts of slug- 
gards, but after dinner there was 'no table-talk tending to 
divinity ; ' at Leicester there was a plain sermon, apparently 
too plain, urging preachers ' to particularise the faults of 

^ There is an abridged copy of this document in the British Museum. 
Addl. MSS. 5853, ff. 249 sq. 



MASS A CI I USE TTS BA V &- CONNECT/CUT VALLE K 309 

their parishioners in the pulpit,' and ' the day's conference 
was to no great purpose ; ' at Melton Mow?jray, as has 
sometimes been the case elsewhere, 'the text was more 
proper to the business than the sermon,' and the 'table- 
talk was not of divinity ; ' at Kirton there was ' a nimble 
and censorious sermon,' but no conference at dinner ; at 
Market Rasen 'a good plain sermon' but 'a very mean 
clergy ; ' at Louth there were ' many grave and learned 
ministers,' too grave indeed, for they were ' all silent ; ' at 
1 lorncastle the * concio prima ' was ' a very sweet and 
eloquent sermon, very handsomely applied to the combina- 
tions of the times against the clergy ; the second was ' a 
discreet sermon and well approved,' for the preacher, being 
led by his text to deal with some neglects of the clergy, 
' he very discreetly delivered that point in Latin.' 

From Horncastle the bishop proceeded to Boston, where 
the preacher was John Cotton, whom the registrar describes 
as ' a young man, but by report a man of great gravity and 
sanctity of life, a man of rare parts for his learning, elo- 
quent and well-spoken, ready upon a sudden, and very 
apprehensive to conceive of any point in learning though 
never so abstruse, insomuch that those his good gifts have 
won him so much credit and acceptance, not only with his 
parishioners at Boston, but with all the ministry and men 
of account in those quarters, that grave and learned men, 
out of an admiration of those good graces of God in him, 
have been, and upon every occasion still are, willing to 
submit their judgments to his in any point of controversy, 
as though he were some extraordinary Paraclete that could 
not err,' Our informant seems to have had a very con- 
siderable taste of his quality. He says, ' Mr. Chancellor 
and myself heard three of his sermons in two days, which 
three were six hours long very near.' The sermons were 
well conceived, were delivered modestly and soberly, and 
well worthy of all commendation ; but, alas 1 nothing in 



3 1 o PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NE I V EAGLA ND. 

this world is perfect : ' there was mors in olla ' — death in 
the pot — ' every sermon to our judgements was poisoned 
with some error or other.' In one sermon he maintained 
that the Pagan world would not be condemned for want of 
belief in Christ, but only for moral transgressions against 
the law of nature written in their hearts ; in another he 
contended that the office of apostle was extinct in the 
Church ; that it was a flat error to think any man a lawful 
minister who was not a preacher ; ordination did not make 
such a man a minister, though God's terrible providence 
might set him over His people in His anger and heavy 
displeasure, but not in mercy ; he further taught that 
reading was not preaching ; that non-residence was utterly 
unlawful ; that it was not lawful to let the Sabbath pass 
without two sermons ; and that by the order of deacons in 
the Bible was meant neither more nor less than collectors 
for the poor.' Clearly registrar and chancellor thought 
that here was a man who needs watching ; he is too 
modern and is in doubtful company : ' his authors he is 
most beholding to (I understand) are of the newest stamp, 
and the place of his dwelling stands better affected to this 
way than the other.' In conclusion, this official compas- 
sionates the people of Boston — as well he may — over their 
Sunday afternoon service. For they have prayers with 
psalms after the lessons ; after the second lesson a psalm 
is sung, which is followed by a sermon two hours long ; 
then another psalm, after which the parish clerk calls out 
the children to be catechised, each one / answering aloud 
as they used to do at a sessions with an Here, Sir.' After 
this call there is a long prayer by the minister of the town, 
and then come the questions ' out of a catechism of his own 
making,' and, finally, he spends two hours more in expli- 
cation of questions and answers ; so, says our informant, 
' if they keep the same tenour all the year, their afternoon 
worship will be five hours long, where, to my observation, 



MA SSA CHUSE TTS BA V &^ CONNECTICUT VA LLE V. 311 

there were as many sleepers as wakcrs, scarce any man but 
sometime was forced to wink or nod.' 

In the course of time complaints were lodged against 
Cotton in the Bishop's Court at Lincoln, and he was 
silenced for a while, but again restored. Altogether he was 
vicar of Boston for twenty years, and during much of the 
time seems to have enjoyed more than the usual liberty. 
For he openly held and taught that, according to the Scrip- 
ture^ bishops were appointed to rule no larger a diocese 
than a particular congregation, and that the keys of eccle- 
siastical government are given by the Lord to each separate 
church. What is more noteworthy still, within the larger 
parish community a gathered church was set up, some 
scores of pious people in the town forming themselves into 
an evangelical church-state by entering into covenant with 
God and with one another, * to follow after the Lord in the 
purity of His worship.' This larger liberty was perhaps 
due to the fact that from 162 1 onwards John Williams was 
Bishop of Lincoln, a man who had himself considerable 
leaning to Puritan modes of thought, and, like his successor, 
Dr. Laney, ' could look through his fingers,' and who, from 
162 1 to 1626, being Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, left his 
diocese very much to take care of itself But, as jealous 
eyes were set on the bishop himself, in 1625 he called John 
Cotton's proceedings in question, and a letter, still in exist- 
ence, in the minute and beautiful handwriting of the vicar, 
asks for further time for consideration on the points at 
issue, ' inasmuch as his forbearance of the ceremonies was 
not from wilful refusal of conformity but from some doubt 
in judgement and from some scruple in conscience.' Sign- 
ing himself, ' Your Lordship's exceedingly much bounden 
orator, John Cotton,' he adds to the address on the outside, 
' This with speed.' ^ 

;Much exercised in mind, John Cotton took counsel 
Add/. JISS. 6394, f. 35- 



3 1 2 PIL GRIM FA THERS OF NE IV ENGLAND. 

of various friends as to whether he ought to stand or 
flee. Among others he put the case before that quaint 
and witty old Puritan, John Dod of Fawsley, who answered, 
sjw more, ' I am old Peter, and therefore must stand still 
and bear the brunt ; but you, being young Peter, may go 
whither you will.' His enemies, however, growing more 
resolute, and a long and sore sickness laying him low, on 
July 8, 1633, he resigned his important charge into the 
hands of the bishop, seeing, as he says, that neither his 
bodily health nor the peace of the Church will now stand 
with his continuance there. As to how he has spent 
his time and course he must ere long give account at 
another tribunal, but he takes leave to say to his lord- 
ship that the bent of his course has been 'to make and 
keep a threefold Christian concord among the people — 
between God and their consciences, between true-hearted 
Ciiristian loyalty and Christian liberty, and between the 
fear of God and the love of one another.' He honours the 
bishops and esteems many hundreds of the divines of the 
Church, but, while prizing other men's judgment and 
learning, their wisdom and piety, in things pertaining to 
God and God's worship, he feels he must live by his own 
faith, not theirs. Therefore, since he cannot yield obedience 
of faith, he is willing to yield patience of hope. At an 
assembly held in the old Guildhall in Boston on the 22nd 
July, before the mayor, aldermen and common council, two 
letters were laid before the house — one from John Cotton 
yielding up his place of being vicar, which the House 
accepted, and one from John, Lord Bishop of Lincoln, by 
the hands of Thomas Cony, the town clerk, stating that on 
the 8th July the said lord bishop did, at his house in the 
College of Westminster, accept of Mr. John Cotton's resig- 
nation of his vicarage. So ended the most memorable 
ministry Boston has ever known. The resignation was 
followed by the issue of writs, and if John Cotton meant to 



MASSACHUSETTS BAV&^ CONNECTICUT VALEEY. 313 

leave the country it must be at once. So, travelling in 
disguise, he made his way to London where John Daven- 
port, the vicar of St. Stephen's, concealed him till he could 
get away to New England, which he reached on the 4th 
September, and where, on the loth October, he was 
solemnly set apart as the colleague of John Wilson in the 
pastorate of that other Boston church across the sea. 

This John Wilson, with whom John Cotton was thus 
associated, was a son of a prebendary of St. Paul's, and 
grand-nephew of Archbishop Grindal, and while at King's 
College, Cambridge, had shown the serious bent of his 
mind by visiting with religious intent the prisoners in the 
county gaol. At the same time he was strongly prejudiced 
against the Puritans, declining their acquaintance as men 
of odd notions, whims and crotchets. Happening, however, 
one day to see in a bookshop the Seven Treatises of 
Richard Rogers, he was so struck with the book as to 
take a journey to Wethersfield to hear the author preach. 
From that time he changed his mind about the Puritans, 
consorted with men of that way of thinking, and held 
meetings with them in his own rooms for prayer and 
conference. Acting thus he soon came under the censure 
of the bishop as visitor of the University, when his father, 
to avoid trouble, turned him aside to the Inns of Court for 
his future. Though thus diverted from his course his desires 
were still towards the Gospel ministry, and eventually he 
returned to Cambridge, entering Emmanuel College, the 
very centre and seed-plot of Puritanism. On leaving 
Emmanuel he became chaplain to Lady Scudamore, but 
having rebuked her ladyship's guests one Sunday for 
talking about nothing but hawks and hounds after the 
morning sermon, he was felt to be undesirable company. 
We next find him at Sudbury, the successor of a veteran 
Puritan in the ministry there, but being harassed in the 
ecclesiastical courts, he made common cause with his 



314 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

neighbour John Winthrop of Groton, and sailed for New 
England with him in 1630. 

While Wilson and Cotton were serving the Church at 
Boston, across the river at Charlestown might be found 
Zachary Symmes, who, after being harassed by Sir Nathaniel 
Brent during his Metropolitical Visitation, had resigned his 
charge at the Priory Church of Dunstable in Bedfordshire, 
and came over to New England in company with Peter 
Bulkely, the founder of Concord and one of Emerson's 
ancestors. Bulkely also was from Bedfordshire, where he 
had succeeded his father as rector of Odell, on the banks 
of the Ouse. The brother-in-law of Oliver St. John, after- 
wards Cromwell's attorney-general, and of good family, 
finding himself pressed both at Bedford and Aylesbury by 
Sir Nathaniel Brent, he joined the Puritan emigration, taking 
with him some i^6ooo — equal to about ;i^30,ooo of present 
value — and making his way ' through unknown woods ' he 
purchased from the Indians the land on the banks of the 
Merrimac, and so became the founder and first minister of 
that town of Concord which has figured so largely in the 
intellectual life of New England. 

Dorchester, a few miles out of Boston, was favoured with 
the able ministry of Richard Mather, who after many 
earnest struggles of soul had made his way to the Puritan 
standpoint. Having for fifteen years served as minister of 
Toxteth, near Liverpool, he was in 1633 suspended for 
nonconformity to the ceremonies. The remainder of his 
life was spent in the ministry of the Church across the sea. 
His son. Increase Mather, was one of the presidents of 
Harvard College ; and his grandson, Cotton Mather, in his 
Magnalia Christ i Americafza, has preserved for us the 
ecclesiastical records of the colony during the first eighty 
years of its history. 

To the north of the new Boston, in the town of Lynn^ 
was another native of the Lincolnshire Boston in the 



MASS A CHUSE TTS BA V &- CONNECTICUT VA LLE V. 315 

person of Samuel Whiting, whose father was once mayor of 
the town. After leaving Emmanuel College he acted as 
chaplain to Sir Nathaniel Bacon, and then became the 
colleague of Mr. Price, of Lynn, where his service was 
interrupted through complaints made to the Bishop of 
Norwich of his nonconformity to certain rites and cere- 
monies, which, says Cotton Mather, were never of any use 
in the Church of God except to become tools by which the 
\yorst men might thrust out the best from serving it. 
Cited before the Court of High Commission, proceedings 
were suddenly dropped through the death of King James 
before the case came on. By the intercession of the Earl 
of Lincoln the matter was allowed to rest there, on the 
understanding that Whiting would leave the diocese, which 
he did, and for the next seven or eight years exercised his 
ministry at Skirbeck, near his native town. Proceedings, 
however, were renewed against him, and he too in 1636 left 
for New England. The spirit of the man may be discerned 
from the sermon he preached shortly after his arrival : ' We 
in this country,' says he, ' have left our near and our dear 
friends, but if we can get nearer to God here, He will be 
instead of all and more than all to us. He hath all the 
fulness of all the sweetest relations bound up in Himself, 
and we may take out of Him that which we forsook in 
friends near and dear to us as our own soul.' 

Among the early authors of New England and one 
whose ministry was among the most spiritually fruitful, was 
Thomas Shepard, of Cambridge. A native of Towcester, 
in Northamptonshire, he, hke so many other of the Puritans, 
was of Emmanuel College. After proceeding Master of 
Arts, he was invited by the inhabitants of Earls Colne, in 
Essex, to be their lecturer, where he produced such an 
impression by the ' majesty and energy in his preachings 
and the holiness of his life,' that when he left the country, 
many of those whom he had been the means of turning to 



3i6 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

a Christian life * afterwards went a thousand leagues to 
enjoy his ministry ' — in other words, followed him to New 
England. While in Essex he was within the jurisdiction 
of Laud, then Bishop of London, who, summoning him 
into his presence, dealt with him in much the same stormy 
fashion as Judge Jeffreys, half a century later, dealt with 
the Nonconformists who appeared before him. Shepard 
has described the interview, which took place as early as 
eight o'clock in the morning, and at which Laud was so 
angry that he ' looked as though blood would have gushed 
out of his face, and did shake as if he had been haunted 
with an ague fit.' When Shepard sought to mollify the 
irate bishop, he called him a prating coxcomb, asked him if 
he thought that all the learning was in his brain, and finally 
prohibited him from exercising any ministerial function 
within his diocese. ' If you do, and I hear of it,' said he, 
' I will follow you wherever you go, in any part of the 
kingdom, and so everlastingly disenable you.' When 
Shepard besought him not to deal so in regard of a poor 
town. Laud exclaimed — ' A poor town ! You have made 
a company of seditious, factious bedlams. Do not prate to 
me of a poor town.' Yet once more the Puritan preacher 
pleaded that if he might neither preach, read, marry nor 
bury, he might at least be suffered to catechise on Sunday 
afternoons ; but Laud, telling him he might spare his breath, 
for he would have no such fellows prate in his diocese, 
bade him begone. ' So away I went,' says Shepard, ' and 
blessed be God, I may go to Him.' 

Journeying from place to place in other dioceses, and 
enduring many hardships, he at length made his way over 
to New England, where he became the pastor of a church 
organised shortly after his arrival at Newtown, afterwards 
known as Cambridge, the congregation consisting largely 
of members of his former flock, who had followed him 
from Essex. Here he remained exercising a memorable 



MASS A CHUSE TTS BA V &- CONNECTICUT VALLE V. 317 

spiritual influence till his death in 1649, and Cotton Mather 
tells us that one of the reasons for establishing Harvard 
College at Cambridge was that the preachers there to be 
trained might be brought under the enlightening and 
powerful influence of Shepard's ministry. 

Another name of even still greater eminence in New 
England Puritan history is that of the saintly pastor of 
Roxbury, John Eliot, the apostle of the Indians. Little is 
known of his previous history in the old country beyond 
the fact that he was a graduate of Cambridge in 1622, 
and was for a tmie assistant in a school kept by Thomas 
Hooker at Little Baddow, near Colchester. Threatened 
with proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts, he also made 
his way over to New England in 1631, and, after serving 
the church in Boston, in the absence of John Wilson, he 
became the honoured and beloved minister of Roxbury, 
near by, till his death in 1690, at the advanced age of 
eighty-six. A man of deep prayerfulness of spirit, he 
seemed, as it was said, to live in heaven while he tarried 
on earth ; and while he tarried, to ring aloud the curfew 
bell wherever the fires of animosity were kindled. His 
ministry to his own countrymen did not prevent him 
putting forth his energies, as the words of the Massachusetts 
Bay Company's charter expressed it, ' to win and incite the 
natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience of 
the only true God and Saviour of mankind and the Christian 
faith.' Miserable, degraded, and unpromising as the Indians 
were, he learnt their language, reduced it to grammatical 
form, and at the end of his grammar wrote that ' prayers 
and pains through faith in Christ Jesus will do anything/ 
Able after a time to preach in their language, he gathered 
a church of converted Indians in 165 1, and gave them the 
Bible in their own tongue, some copies of which still 
remain, though no one living now can read them. Increase 
Mather, writing to Dr. Leusden, of Utrecht, in 1687, stated 



31 8 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

that there were then no fewer than six churches of baptised 
Indians and eighteen assemblies of catechumens professing 
the name of Christ ; that among the Indians themselves 
there were no fewer than four-and-twenty native preachers, 
in addition to the four English ministers, who could preach 
in the native tongue. The people, influenced for good by 
this apostle of Roxbury, came to be distinguished as the 
'praying Indians,' and such was the reputation for saint- 
liness of this good man, that there was a New England 
saying to the effect that the country would never perish 
while Eliot lived. The story of John Eliot's life-work 
revived the spirit of Richard Baxter even when his soul 
was in departing. Raising himself once more, he said : ' I 
know much of Mr. Eliot from letters I have had from him, 
and there is no man on earth I honour more. This evan- 
gelical work of his is the apostolical succession I plead for ; 
his departing words I make my own : " My understanding 
faileth, my memory faileth, my tongue faileth, but my 
charity faileth not." ' 

The limit of these pages will not permit more than 
passing reference to many other worthies who did much to 
mould the new community to which they came — Peter 
Hobart, born at Hingham, in Norfolk, and who founded 
that other Hingham, where in its own beautiful grounds, 
and amid leafy surroundings, still stands the oldest meet- 
ing-house in New England ; Charles Chauncey, from the 
Hertfordshire Ware, who had to face fierce fires in the 
Ecclesiastical Courts of his native land before he left it ; 
Nathaniel and Ezekiel Rogers, the sons of two memorable 
men of Puritan fame ; John Fisk, John Avery, John Norton 
and Jonathan Burr ; and last, but not least, John Harvard, 
who, dying childless, bequeathed his library and half his 
estate to endow the great College which bears his name. 

When this College was founded by a General Court in 
1636, danger seemed to threaten the colony from the 



MASSACHUSETTS BA F <S- CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 319 

Indians, from the Home Government, and from internal 
theological dissension. As we find from the Colonial 
Papers, Laud, with unresting vigilance, was busily drawing 
up minutes on matters of Colonial administration which 
boded no good to the cause of freedom. As early as 1635 
the colonists were alarmed by a declaration from the king 
announcing his intention of placing the Ncav England 
colonies under a governor appointed by himself. Two 
years later another declaration was issued, and it might 
have gone ill \vith the liberties of Massachusetts but for 
the outbreak of that Scotch rebellion, which not only 
rejected Laud's Episcopacy and Service-book, but altered 
the whole aspect of national affairs on both sides of the sea. 
In 1638, when a strict order came to send back the Massa- 
chusetts charter to England, to be replaced by a new one, 
the increasing troubles arising from the attitude of the 
Scottish people towards Episcopacy more than anything 
else made that order of none effect. 

As the colonists received allotments of land more and 
more widely, it began to be necessary for the settlement to 
look farther afield. The fame of the great Connecticut 
river valley had reached the people at the Bay, and began 
to excite expectation among the planters. Agents were 
sent out to report, and in 1636 there was a considerable 
migration a hundred miles to westward. Those who came 
from Cambridge formed a church at Hartford, those from 
Dorchester at Windsor, those from Watertown at Wethers- 
field, and those from Roxbury at Springfield. The man 
who had most influence in directing this westward move- 
ment was Thomas Hooker, a native of Leicestershire and 
Fellow of Emmanuel, who had been settled at Chelmsford 
as lecturer and assistant. While here it is said 'his lecture 
was exceedingly frequented and proportionately succeeded, 
and the light of his ministr}- shone through the whole 
county of Essex.' Pressed for his nonconformity to cere- 



320 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

monies in which he did not believe, he laid down his 
ministry and commenced a school at Little Baddow, where 
he had John Eliot as his usher. Eliot has told us what the 
spiritual atmosphere of Thomas Hooker's house was like : 
' Here the Lord said unto my dead soul — Live ! and 
through the grace of Christ, I do live, and I shall live for 
ever. When I came to this blessed family I then saw and 
never before the power of godliness in its lively vigour and 
efficacy.' Still further harassed. Hooker went over into 
Holland, but hearing that some of his Essex friends were 
taking wing to New England, he joined them at their 
request, and eventually came to be prominently identified 
with the migration to the Connecticut valley. 

In June, 1636, when the river had become free from ice 
and the woodland meadows offered pasture, the Cambridge 
congregation, a hundred or more in number, led by Thomas 
Hooker, taking with them 160 head of cattle and sending 
their furniture and supplies round by water, made their 
way to the new settlement. It was a migration not so 
much of individuals as of churches, and the first comers 
being followed by others from Dorchester, Watertown, and 
Roxbury, by the following May 800 people were living at 
Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield — Springfield being 
settled later on. In 1636 the municipal independence of 
the three townships was recognised ; the following year 
the colony advanced to representative government by a 
meeting of deputies or committees for the different town- 
ships, and in 1638 the three towns together formally 
declared themselves a commonwealth. The legislature 
was to consist of a governor, six assistants and deputies, 
the governor and assistants to be elected annually by the 
whole body of freemen met in General Court for that pur- 
pose. In one important point the constitution of Con- 
necticut was more liberal than that of Massachusetts, 
inasmuch as the governor was the only person from whom 



MASSACHUSETTS BAY &- CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 321 

church-membership was required. All freemen who had 
been admitted by a majority of their township, and had 
taken the oath of fidelity to the commonwealth, had the 
right of voting both for deputies and at the General Court 
of Election. 

At the opening session of the General Court of 1638, 
Thomas Hooker preached a forcible sermon, in which he 
maintained that the foundation of authority is laid in the 
free consent of the people, that the choice of public magis- 
trates belongs unto the people by God's own allowance, 
and that they who have power to appoint officers and 
magistrates have the right also to set the bounds and 
limitations of the power and place unto which they call 
them. This of Connecticut has been described as the 
first written Constitution known to history that created a 
government, and as having marked the beginning of that 
American democracy of which Thomas Hooker more than 
any other man deserves to be called the father ; the govern- 
ment of the United States to-day being in lineal descent 
more nearly related to that of Connecticut than to that of 
any of the other thirteen colonies.^ * 

The establishment of these settlements in the Connecticut 
valley had the sorrowful result of bringing the English for 
the first time into serious conflict with the Indians. For 
this new plantation was really an outpost projecting into 
the territory of a powerful and warlike tribe. Three years 
before Hooker's migration, complications had already arisen 
through the murder of a crew of traders by the Pequot 
Indians. Sassacus, their chief sachem, promised the govern- 
ment at Boston to deliver up the murderers, but had 
evidently no intention of doing so. Then again in the 
summer of 1636 the Indians on Block Island murdered 
John Oldham and seized his vessel. By way of teaching 
these savages that such conduct was not to be endured, 
^ Fiske's The Begmning of New England, ■^. 127. 

Y 



322 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

three vessels were sent out under the command of Endicott, 
who ravaged Block Island, burnt their wigwams, and sunk 
their canoes, the men themselves having taken to the 
woods. Then crossing to the mainland to reckon with the 
Pequots, they demanded the surrender of the murderers 
about whom so many promises had been made. Unable 
to obtain satisfaction, they attacked the Indians, killing 
several of them, seizing their ripe corn and burning and 
spoiling what they could not carry away. As war breeds 
war again, this expedition of Endicott's led to reprisals, 
which fell heaviest upon the new-comers into the valle\% 
who had taken no part in that expedition. 

Next winter the Connecticut towns were kept in a per- 
petual state of alarm. Men going to their work were killed 
and horribly mutilated. One Wethersfield man was kid- 
napped and roasted alive, after which the Pequots attacked 
Wethersfield itself, massacring ten of its inhabitants and 
carrying off two English girls to the woods. Goaded to 
desperation, the settlers sought help from Boston and. 
Plymouth, and ninety men were sent out under the com- 
mand of John Ma^n. One brilliant moonlight night in 
May, 1637, they made for the Pequot stronghold. This- 
was an entrenched fort or walled village containing 700 
Pequots, and girdled by an earthen rampart three feet 
high, and a palisade twelve feet high made of sturdy 
saplings set firm and deep into the ground. At opposite 
ends were two openings barely large enough to let a man 
pass through, and within this enclosure of two or three 
acres were the crowded wigwams. A little before daybreak 
both entrances were occupied and the place taken b\- 
complete surprise. Seized with panic, the Indians tried to 
escape through first one outlet and then the other, but were 
ruthlessly shot down whichever way they turned. Mean- 
time firebrands were thrown over the palisade among the 
wigwams, and soon the whole place was in flames, the 



MASS A CHUSE TTS BAV&^ CONNECTICUT VA LEE Y. 323 

savages perishing in their burning dwcUings. Of 700 
Pequots only five escaped with their lives, while of the 
EnglisTi only two were killed and sixteen wounded. The 
tribe was all but wiped out of existence. Never had the 
Indians heard of so terrible a vengeance, and never again 
till the time of King Philip's war, eight-and-thirty years 
later, dared the Indian lift his hand against the white man. 

The overthrow of the Pequots removed the one obstacle 
to the consolidation of New England. The Connecticut 
settlements were no longer isolated, separated from their 
friends along the coast by the intervention of barbarous 
tribes, but were brought into direct communication with 
the rest of the English from the mouth of the Connecticut 
river to Boston Bay. The rest of the Pequot Indians, to 
the number of some 200 warriors with their families, 
submitted to the English in 1638, and at a conference 
held at Hartford, in September, were divided between the 
Mohicans and the Narragansetts. So that the conditions 
were now reversed, and the Indian tribes in their turn 
detached and hemmed in, and the way prepared for that 
last wave of migration which brought to an end the great 
Puritan exodus from England to America. 

About a month after the storming of the Pequot strong- 
hold, this last detachment, consisting of a company of 
wealthy London merchants with their families, arrived in 
Boston. The two most prominent men among them were 
Theophilus Eaton, a member of the Massachusetts Bay 
Company, and John Davenport, the pastor of this migrating 
community. The two men had known each other before 
they came together in this enterprise, for Eaton was the 
son of the minister and Davenport the son of a former 
mayor of Coventry. After graduating at Oxford, Daven- 
port obtained the living at Coleman Street, London, where 
his preaching attracted both public attention and official 
surveillance. When charged to Secretary Conway with 

Y 2 



324 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

being puritanically affected, he denied the charge, saying, 
* I have persuaded many to conformity — yea, my own 
father and uncle,'who are aldermen of the city of Coventry, 
and were otherwise inclined.' ^ In 1628, writing to Lady 
Mary Vere, he tells her of the troubles gathering round 
him ; the new Bishop of London, Dr. Laud, has a particular 
aim at him, and he expects ere long to be deprived of his 
pastoral charge in Coleman Street. 'But I am in God's 
hands,' says he, ' not in theirs ; to whose good pleasure I 
do contentedly and cheerfully submit myself. If it be His 
will to have me laid aside as a broken vessel, His will be 
done.' ^ In later years we find him explaining his position 
to this same lady : ' The truth is, I have not forsaken my 
ministry, nor resigned up my place, much less separated 
from the Church ; but am only absent awhile to wait upon 
God for the settling and quieting of things, for light to 
discern my way ; being willing to lie and die in prison, if 
the cause may be advantaged by it ; but choosing rather 
to preserve the liberty of my person and ministry for the 
service of the Church elsevv^here. . . . The only cause of 
my present suffering is the alteration of my judgment in 
matters of conformity to the ceremonies established ; 
whereby I cannot practise them as formerly I have done ; 
wherein I do not censure those that do conform. I know 
that I did conform with as much inward peace as now I do 
forbear ; in both my uprightness was the same, but my 
light different. In this action I walk by that light which 
shineth unto me.' 

From 1634 till 1637 we find him in Holland, but in the 
latter year one of the informers of the time reports : ' Mr. 
Davenport hath lately been in these parts, Braintree, and at 
Hackney, not long since. I am told that he goeth in gray 
like a country gentleman.' ^ When spies were thus on his 

1 State Papers, Dom. ^ ^^y^/, MSS., 4275. 

^ State Papers, Dom. 



MASSA CHUSETTS BAY &- CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 325 

track clearly he must go ; we learn, therefore, that he arrived 
in Boston by the ship Hector, June, 1637. In concert with 
his friend Theophilus Eaton, whom Winthrop describes as a 
man ' of fair estate and of great esteem for religion and 
wisdom in outward affairs,' he spent some months in seeking 
the best site for a new settlement. This they found at 
length at Quinnipiack, on Long Island Sound, where they 
made two successive purchases of land extending eight 
miles north-east and five miles south-west of the river and 
running ten miles inland. In this way the town of New 
Haven came to be founded in the spring of 1638. The 
next year two other parties of emigrants, each forty in 
number, and each, like New Haven, joined together as an 
independent church, settled at Guildford and Milford, both 
settlements placed on lands purchased from the Indians. 
In 1640 Stamford on the mainland was added to the group, 
and in 1643 the four towns were made to constitute the 
republic of New Haven, to which Southold, on the western 
shore of Long Island, and Branford were afterwards added. 
With the advent to power of the Long Parliament in 
1640, and the consequent downfall of Archbishop Laud, the 
reason for the Puritan exodus ceased, and the exodus itself 
came to an end. Since the arrival of the Mayflower in 
1620, the population had grown to 26,000 souls, and after 
1640 for more than a century there was no considerable 
migration to this part of North America. These twenty 
years and these 26,000 people constitute the formative 
period and the determining element of New England and 
American life. Those who believe in a philosophy of 
history and seek to trace it in the course of events cannot 
fail to see the special significance of the time. The Dutch 
had already erected Fort Amsterdam on the island at the 
mouth of the Hudson, which was afterwards to bear the 
great commercial city of New York. The French had 
settled at Port Royal, in Nova Scotia, and had established a 



326 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

trading post with the Indians at Quebec. If, therefore, the 
power of England and the English spirit of freedom were 
to become dominant or| the great continent of America, the 
beginnings must be made during the years with which we 
have been dealing. Not less significant were the men than 
the time. Those who came over were almost without 
exception deeply religious men. It has been truly said 
that it was religious enthusiasm that secured the preponder- 
ance of the continent for men of the English race. As 
England grew in manufacturing skill and in commerce 
through the coming of the Huguenots whom religious 
persecution drove on to English soil, so the great republic 
of the West feels to this day the coming of the moral and 
religious influence of the men who, in the seventeenth 
century, valued freedom of conscience as their most sacred 
possession. The pick and flower of the nation from which 
they came, their spirit still lives. Had the emigration not 
started when it did, the solid and godly element there is in 
American life would not have been what it is. On the 
other hand, had that emigration continued longer, had 
England been depleted to exhaustion of her noblest blood, 
as France was when her Huguenots were banished or slain, 
her great struggle for constitutional freedom in the seven- 
teenth century might have ended other than it did. That 
would have been a calamity not for England alone but for 
the world. It has been well said that the decisive victory 
of Charles I., the triumph of Stuart despotism, would have 
been like the Greeks losing Marathon or the Saracens 
winning Tours. 



( 327 ) 



XII. 

THE UNITED COLONIES.' 

Having followed the rise of the colonies round Massa- 
chusetts Bay and in the Connecticut Valley, we may now 
return to see how the people of the Plymouth Plantation 
were faring meanwhile. Since the year 1627, when De 
Rassieres paid the visit he himself described, the settlers 
seem to have been steadily prospering, if we may judge 
from the fact that in the autumn of 1632 they held a 
thanksgiving festival, at which they rejoiced ' in an especial 
manner;' this, too, in spite of 'a plague of mosquitoes 
ari3"^ rattlesnakes.' The colony was already beginning to 
spread beyond its original boundaries ; for as their cattle 
increased the people moved farther and farther in search 
of pasturage. At first these visits were mere summer 
sojourns, but eventually they led to the erection of 
■dwellings where the winter could be spent, and to the 
grief of Governor Bradford issued in the separation of 
many from the parent settlement. In 1632 permission 
was given for the organisation of a church nearer home for 
those who had thus moved some five miles to the north, 
of which church Elder Brewster was to have the oversight ; 
but the court at Plymouth, which granted this permission, 
insisted that settlers so far distant from the protection of 
the fort on Burial Hill should be every man of them 
armed. As an additional precaution against surprise 
their houses were palisaded, and a line of defence was 
built across the entrance of the Nook. 



328 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

Though not incorporated till 1637, Duxbury thus came 
to be the first offshoot of the Plymouth stock, and received 
its name as a reminiscence of Miles Standish's ancestral 
seat in Lancashire, the Duxbury Hall, not far from 
Chorley town. To this new settlement, for the sake of 
more fertile land, several of the leading men of the colony 
migrated from Plymouth, as there are memorials to 
remind us. On Captain's Hill, seen for miles both from 
sea and land, stands the lofty column of Miles Standish's 
monument. In a field in North Duxbury, not many 
minutes' walk from the high road, we come upon an 
inscription which tells us that here stood John Alden's 
house — that John Alden who wedded Priscilla Mullins 
the maiden who, as the legend goes, when he first went to 
plead Miles Standish's suit, witchingly asked : ' Prithee,, 
why don't you speak for yourself, John ? ' William 
Brewster, too, was among those who moved their dwellings 
into Duxbury, and natives of the town say that till recent 
time there were to be seen traces of the tall clump of 
whitewood trees that gave the name of the Eagle's Nest 
to the place where his homestead stood. Others, again, 
of those who started from London in the Mayflower 
have left traces of themselves in Duxbury, in such names 
as Blackfriar's Brook, Billingsgate, and Houndsditch, 
which" they had brought with them from their former 
home. 

Edward Winslow obtained possession of land even- 
beyond Duxbury, at Greenharbour, known afterwards as 
Marshfield, though as he was governor in 1644 he does 
not seem to have altogether severed his connection with 
Plymouth. So that of those who had signed the compact 
on board the Mayflower, Miles Standish, William Brewster, 
John Alden, John Howland, George Soule, and Henrj- 
Sampson had migrated to Duxbury ; as did also, among 
those who came later, Brewster's son Jonathan, W^illiam 



THE UNITED COLONIES. 3^9 

Collier, and Thomas Prince. Governor Bradford mourned 
over these changes and losses, inevitable in a changing 
world, but at length consent was reluctantly given for 
the incorporation of the new settlement as the town of 
Duxbury, the court making a grant which ran, after the 
manner of the time, ' to be holden of our sovereign lord 
the king as of his manor and tenure of East Greenwich 
in the county of Kent.' ^ With the incorporation fjf the 
town came the settlement of its first pastor, Ralph Part- 
ridge. Marshfield was the next church organised, which 
was followed by Scituate, Barnstable, Tauntcjn, Yarmouth, 
and Sandwich, so that Plymouth Colony at the time it 
entered into the New England Confederacy consisted of 
eight separate towns. 

.The relations between the dwellers in this the old 
colony and those of the Massachusetts Bay, being all 
Englishmen, were naturally of friendly sort. John Cotton, 
in his farewell sermon to John Winthrop and his associates 
at Southampton, urged them to take advice of those 
already at Plymouth, and do nothing to offend them. We 
have seen also how Samuel Fuller, the good physician, 
went over to the help of the people of Salem in time of 
sickness ; and when at a later time John Winthrop's people 
also were sorely stricken the colonists at Plymouth, at 
their request, observed the same day as a day of fasting 
and prayer on their behalf ; and as their neighbours grew 
in numbers and strength Governor Bradford rejoiced with 
them, pointing out * how of small beginnings great things 
have been produced by His hand that made all things of 
nothing and gives being to all things that arc ; and as one 
small candle may light a thousand, so the light here 
kindled hath shone to many, yea, in some sort to our 
whole nation. Let the glorious name of Jehovah have all 
the praise.' During the years between 1630 and 1G43 
' The Mayflower Town. By Justin Winsor. 



330 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

letters of friendship were interchanged and visits paid. In 
1629, as we remember, Governor Bradford and his friends 
went over to the ordination service at Salem ; and the 
week after the arrival of Margaret Winthrop, Bradford 
paid a visit of congratulation to ' his much-honoured and 
beloved friend,' her husband, the Governor of Massa- 
chusetts. On his part, too, John Winthrop reciprocated 
the kindness shown, for we find him lending the people of 
Plymouth twenty-eight pounds of powder * upon their 
urgent distress, their own powder proving naught, when 
they were to send to the rescue of their men at Sowam- 
sett' ^ In the month of September, 1632, also, as Winthrop 
himself tells us, he and his pastor, John Wilson, went 
over to Plymouth, walking the twenty-five miles from 
Wessagusset ; and as towards evening they were nearing 
the town ' the Governor, Mr. William Bradford (a very 
discreet and grave man), met them and conducted them to 
the Governor's house, where they were very kindly enter- 
tained and feasted every day at several houses. On the 
Lord's Day there was a sacrament which they did partake 
in ; and in the afternoon Mr. Roger Williams, according to 
their custom, propounded a question, to which the pastor, 
Mr. Smith, spake briefly ; then Mr. Williams prophesied 
\i.e. preached] ; and after, the Governor of Plymouth spake 
to the question ; after him. Elder Brewster ; then some 

two or three men of the congregation. Then Elder 

Brewster desired the Governor of Massachusetts and Mr. 
Wilson to speak to it, which they did. When this was 
ended the deacon, Mr. Fuller, put the congregation in mind 
of their duty of contribution ; whereupon the Governor 
and all the rest went down to the deacon's seat, and put 
into the box, and then returned.' There were thus some 
memorable men at this old world Sabbath worship — John 
Winthrop, William Bradford, William Brewster, and Roger 
^ Winthrop's Life and Letters, ii. 97. 



THE UNITED COLONIES. 331 

Williams. And the following Wednesday, 'as early as 
five in the morning, the Governor and his company came 
out of Plymouth, the Governor of Plymouth, with the 
pastor, Ralph Smith, and Elder Brewster, etc., accom- 
panying them near half-a-mile out of town in the dark.' 
Some of the party went with them as far as the great 
Pembroke Swamp, ten miles from Plymouth. 'When. they 
came to the great river they were carried over by Luddam, 
their guide (as they had been when they came, the stream 
being very strong and up to the crotch), so the Governor 
called that passage Luddam's Ford.' ^ 

The friendship thus subsisting between the two colonies 
was destined to take a closer and more definite form. 
The time came when there was felt to be urgent need for 
union between the New England Colonies for the purpose 
of common jurisdiction, and also for common support 
against the Indians, the Dutch in New Netherlands, and, 
to some extent, the French in the north. There was much 
that might form a common basis of union to start with ; 
for in all the settlements the colonists were of the same 
English race, were impelled by similar motives, cherished 
the same hopes, and had been disciplined by the same 
kind of training. It needed, therefore, but a suggestion to 
put the idea in motion. By whom the suggestion was 
first made does not appear, but Winthrop tells us that after 
the overthrow of the Pequots, as some of the magistrates 
and ministers of Connecticut were at Boston, an apparently 
unpremeditated conference was held to discuss a scheme of 
confederation, notice of which was given to the govern- 
ment of Plymouth, but too late for them to take part in the 
deliberations. It further appears that in 1638 a scheme 
of union was proposed by Massachusetts and rejected by 
Connecticut, the point upon which they differed being as 
to whether the vote of a majority of Federal commissioners 
^ Winthrop's Life and Letters, ii. 105, 106. 



332 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

should have binding force on the whole Confederation.^ 
The matter from this time remained in abeyance for about 
three years, possibly through some difficulty on the part of 
Plymouth, inasmuch as on the revival of the scheme in 
1642, Winthrop states that now Plymouth was willing to 
come in. Bradford, however, says nothing of any difficulty 
arising on their part, merely stating that ever since the 
Pequot war the Indians were drawn into a general con- 
spiracy against the English in all parts, which led to a more 
near union and confederation on the part of the plantations 
under the government of Massachusetts, New Plymouth, 
Connecticut, and New Haven. Be that as it may, in 
May, 1643, commissioners from the three latter colonies 
met at Boston, and after two or three conferences Articles 
of Confederation were agreed upon and signed by all 
the commissioners except those from Plymouth, they by 
the terms of their commission being obliged to refer the 
matter back to the court of the colony before giving final 
consent. 

Bradford, in his history, has given the Articles of Con- 
federation in full, these being eleven in number. The 
preamble states that all the four colonies came to 
America with the same end and aim, that is, to advance 
the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy the 
liberties of the Gospel in purity with peace ; and living as 
they do encompassed with people of several nations and 
strange languages, they conceive it their bounden duty 
without delay to enter into a present consociation for 
mutual help and strength. The confederacy thus to be 
formed was to be called the United Colonies of New 
England, and to constitute a league of friendship and 
amity for offence and defence, mutual advice and succour 
upon all just occasions, both for preserving and propa- 
gating the truth and liberties of the Gospel, and for mutual 
^ Winthrop's History, i. 237, 284. 



THE UNITED COLONIES. 333 

safety and welfare. Each colony was to preserve its own 
jurisdiction ; all public charges to be met by contributions 
levied on the colonies in proportion to the number of their 
inhabitants ; the affairs of the confederation to be managed 
by commissioners, two from each colony, all being of good 
standing as church members ; and the annual meetings 
to be held in each of the colonies in rotation, Massachusetts 
having two turns in succession. 

It will be seen that since all power of taxation beyond a 
common levy was left to the several colonies, and the 
board of commissioners had but little executive power, and 
was little more than a consulting body, the confederacy 
was rather a league than a federal union ; still, it is 
important as being the first American experiment in the 
direction of Federal government. There were difficulties, 
of course, to be surmounted. One source of friction, as 
might be expected, lay in the overwhelming preponderance 
of Massachusetts ; for of the 24,000 people included in the 
confederacy, no fewer than 15,000 belonged to that colony, 
the other three colonies having only about 3000 each. 
Massachusetts, therefore, had the greater responsibility, 
and naturally sought to exert the greater authority, an 
authority which was sometimes resented by the rest. 
There was also one other undesirable result of the union 
entered into. It has been contended that since Massachu- 
setts was narrower and more intolerant than Plymouth, 
restricting its franchise as it did to church members, and 
allowing less latitude of speech and opinion, its tendency 
was to reduce the more liberally-inclined Plymouth to 
something like its own level ; that while the latter gained 
in security and industrial progress from association with 
its more powerful neighbour, it lost something also in the 
way of freedom and self-reliance, and that from this and 
other causes, after the important era of 1643, Plymouth 
ceases to be of continuous interest, except as the heroes of 



334 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

the bygone pilgrimage sink one by one to the rest they 
had so nobly earned. Still, in spite of all drawbacks, the 
league of the four colonies was of great value in the 
developnrient of New England. It worked well as a high 
court of jurisdiction, and as a means of concentrating the 
military strength of the colonies for common ends, and by 
its principle of State freedom and State equality, it pre- 
pared the way for that greater Federal union which, in the 
following century, made of the American people a nation. 
From 1643 till the memorable 1684, when the British 
Government interfered and brought it to an untimely end, 
this league of the four colonies did good service, and 
prepared the way eventually for greater things. 

The commissioners who met at Boston to form this 
confederacy seem to have been strangely indifferent as to 
what might be thought of this important step of theirs by 
the English Government. It has been well said they 
sought no permission beforehand ; they did as they pleased 
at the time, and defended their conduct afterwards. As 
Edward Winslow put the case when sent over to London 
to defend the action of the colonies : 'If we in America 
should forbear to unite for offence and defence against a 
common enemy till we have leave from England, our 
throats might all be cut before the messenger would be 
half-seas through.' It seemed a daring step to take ; in 
reality it was less daring in 1643 than it would have been 
some years earlier. For then Laud had been ±wia, years in 
the Tower awaiting that execution which came two years 
later, and Charles I. was engaged in that life and death 
struggle with his Parliament which ended so fatally for 
him. Both king and archbishop therefore had more urgent 
business on their hands than that of keeping jealous watch 
on what the New England colonies might do. 

It was on May 19, 1643, that the deputies of the four 
colonies met at Boston, subscribed the Articles of Con- 



THE UNITED COLONIES. 335 

federation, and thus created the first Federal Union on 
t^i^^ American continent. The greatest man among the 
founders of Plymoutli Plantation did not live to see that 
day, for a month earlier, on April 10, 'to the great sadness 
and mourning of them all,' William Brewster passed to 
' where beyond these voices there is peace.' With pathos 
and sorrow his friend and countryman, Governor Bradford, 
recording the fact, describes him as ' my dear and loving 
friend ; a man that had done and suffered much for the 
Lord Jesus and the Gospel's sake ; and had borne his part 
in weal and woe with this poor persecuted church above 
thirty-six years in England, Holland, and in this wilder- 
ness, and done the Lord and them faithful service in his 
place and calling.' In summing up the life-story of his 
friend, whose course we have followed from Scrooby 
Manor-house to the quiet homestead near the Eagle's Nest, 
William Bradford tells us how bravely, through stress and 
storm, this venerated elder kept on his way ; how he was 
no way unwilling to take his part and bear his burden with 
the rest. He tells us that more than once he had lived 
without bread or corn many months together, having many 
times nothing but fish, and often wanting that also. 'Yet 
he lived, by the blessing of God, in health until very old 
age, and would labour with his hands in the fields as long 
aT~Ee was able. And when the Church had no other 
minister, he taught twice every Sabbath, and that both 
powerfully and profitably, to the great contentment of the 
hearers and their comfortable edification. Yea, many were 
brought to God by his ministry. He did more in their 
behalf in a year than many that have their hundreds a 
year do in all their lives.' William Bradford further 
describes for us the personal characteristics of this friend 
of his whom he had known ever since his own old Auster- 
field days : ' He was wise and discreet and well-spoken, 
having a grave deliberate utterance; of a very cheerful 



336 PILGRIM fATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

spirit, very sociable and pleasant amongst his friends, of an 
humble and honest mind ; of a peaceable disposition, under- 
valuing himself and his own abilities and sometimes 
overvaluing others; inoffensive and innocent in his life 
and conversation, which gained him the love of those 
without as well as those within. Yet he would tell them 
plainly of their faults and evils, both publicly and privately, 
but in such a manner as usually was well taken from 
him ... In teaching he was very stirring and moving the 
affections, also very plain and distinct in what he taught, 
by which means he became the more profitable to the 
liearers. He had a singular good gift in prayer, both 
public and private, in ripping up the heart and conscience 
before God, in the humble confession of sin and begging 
the mercies of God in Christ for the pardon thereof. He 
always thought it were better for ministers to pray oftener, 
and divide their prayers, than to be long and tedious in 
the same, except upon solemn and special occasions, as on 
days of humiliation and the like.' 

Like a tired child William Brewster fell asleep when his 
long day's work was done. ' He was near fourscore years 
of age (if not all out) when he died. He had this blessing 
added by the Lord to all the rest, to die in his bed in peace 
among the midst of his friends, who mourned and wept 
over him, and ministered what help and comfort they could 
unto him, and he again re-comforted them whilst he could. 
His sickness was not long. Until the last day thereof he 
did not wholly keep his bed. His speech continued until 
somewhat more than half a day before his death, and then 
failed him ; and about nine or ten of the clock tliat evening 
he died, without any pang at all. A few hours before he 
drew his breath short, and some few minutes before his 
last he drew his breath long, as a man fallen into a sound 
sleep without any pangs or gaspings, and so sweetly 
departed this life into a better.' 



THE UNITED COLONIES. 337 

Six years after William lircvvstcr went his way, John 
Winthrop followed him, and the men (jf Massachusetts bent 
with sorrow as they laid the body of their governor ' with 
.i,acat solemnity and honour' in tlie burial-ground (jf 
King's Chapel in Boston city. Mis sc])ulchre was there, 
but as they said, his ' epitaph was engraven in the minds 
of the people, as a worthy gentleman who had done good 
in Israel, having spent ncjt only his whole cstaUr, but his 
bodily strength and life in the service of the country, as a 
burning torch spending his health and wealth ff^r the goi^d 
of others.' This was in 1649, 'i'^'' ''^ \C)^2 John Cotton 
too was called away, while three years later, in three 
consecutive years, Edward Winslow, Miles Standish and 
\Vi]]iam Bradford went over to the majority. To William 
Bradford as the simple but graphic historian of Plymouth 
PlantatifMi we owe a deep debt of gratitude for the records 
he foreserved and the story he told ; and we arc glad to 
know that when the parting time came he too was filled 
with ' ineffable consolations, the good Spirit of God giving 
him a pledge of the firstfruits of his eternal glory.' 

To those remaining it must have seemed as if the heroic 
age had reached its close. In a new community just 
setting out on its career it was not easy to make up for 
the loss of men who had been formed uiuler the best 
training the Old World could give. Their successors, how- 
ever, showed their understanding of the needs of the time 
by doing all they could to foster that spirit of learning 
which had made the older generation what it had been. 
An English historian has done them the justice to say that, 
' let our sense of the shortcomings of American Puritanism 
be ever so strong, it should never lead us to forget this its 
great merit. It carried on the best traditions of tlie 
Reformation. It never dealt with learning as the privilege 
of a class. It might silence its opponents ; it never sought 
to deaden or .sophisticate the minds of its disciples. 

z 



33S PILGRIM FATHERS OF XEIV ENGLAND. 

Bigoted itself, it so dealt with them as to make like bigotry 
impossible in the future.' ^ The writer in bearing this 
testimony had especial reference to the fact, that in 1636 
the General Court of INIassachusetts voted four hundred 
pounds, a sum equal to the whole taxation of the colony, 
towards establishing a college or grammar school. This 
grant was the following year supplemented by the munifi- 
cence of John Harvard, a graduate of Emmanuel. Cambridge, 
who bequeathed to the college a sum of seven hundred 
pounds and his library of two hundred and sixty volumes. 
In 1642 the college was placed under the control of a board 
consisting of the governor. deput}--governor, the assist- 
ants, the ministers of six neighbouring towns and the 
president. In 1650 a fuller grant of incorporation was 
given, and the college further endowed with all the tolls 
taken at the ferr)- between Charlestown and Boston. The 
influence of Harvard College was felt by all the colonies, 
and in due time Connecticut followed the example of 
Massachusetts b\- starting the college at Saybrook which 
afterwards at New Haven grew to the great Uni\ersit\- of 
Yale. These two institutions were the forerunners of 
man\- more colleges and universities, to which the American 
people have recently given noble and generous endowments 
for the furtherance of education at a time when our own 
ancient seats of learning at home are suffering from 
deepening impoverishment and need. 

In other ways than b}- the founding and endowing of 
Harvard the New England colonies showed their sense of 
the value of education. In 1647 an order of court estab- 
lished schools of two classes in Massachusetts. Where 
there were as man}- as fifty householders there was to be 
an elementarv school at which reading and writincf should 
be taught ; and where there \\ere a hundred householders 
they were to have a grammar school. In Plymouth colony 
^ Dovle, ii. 113. 



il 



THE UNITED COLONIES. 339 

there aptpear to have been voluntary schools before the 
enactment of 1662, under which the court charj^ed each 
municipah'ty to have 'a schoolmaster set up.' In 1670 the 
fishing excise from the cape was offered any town which 
would keep a free school, classical as well as elementary. 
Plymouth was the town that complied with t his con dition, 
and claims to have had the first free school established in 
New England by law. In 1677, however, it ceased to be 
free, though in 1704 it became so again. 

From 1643, the year of their confederati on, fo r the next 
one-and-twenty years the New England colonies pursued 
their course, undisturbed either by king or common- 
wealth at home. After the Restoration, however, in 1664, a 
commission was sent out to administer and inspect. The 
commissioners were charged to secure the king's rights ; 
to enforce the execution of the Navigation Acts, and the 
free exercise of religion according to the laws of England. 
They were also to inquire into the administration of justice, 
the treatment of the natives, and the state of education ; 
and they were entrusted with certain diplomatic powers, 
which were conveyed in secret orders.^ This commission 
seems to have been fruitless, so far as the purpose of the 
Government was concerned. It did little but leave behind 
a feeling of irritation in the minds of the people and the 
abiding dread of an attack on their liberties. The next 
incident of moment is that ten years later there broke out 
that disastrous war with the Indians under King Philip, the 
horrors of which lived long as a terrible memory in New 
England. While for the Indians it meant utter destruction 
and the disappearance of the red man from the history of 
the country, except for occasional raids on the frontier ; to 
the colonists themselves also it brought disastrous conse- 
quences in the destruction of life and property. Of ninety 
towns, twelve were utterly destroyed, while more than forty 

^ Colonial Papers, \^ri\ 23, 1664. 

Z 2 



340 riLGRnr fathers of XFW FXuLAXn. 

others were the scene o( fire and slaughter. One out o{ 
every twelve men of militar\- age was killed, together witli 
great numbers of wi->men and children. Nearl\- o\cry 
household was in mourning", and the mone\- cost of the war 
was so great that in 1676 the direct taxation in Massa- 
chusetts was sixteen times what was imposed in ordinar\' 
years. In Ph-mouth also it amounted to ;^3700, a sum 
which was supposed to exceed the total value o( personal 
property in the colon\\ 

In 1684 came at last the long-expected blow from the 
Government in England. In the month o( June a decree 
in Chancery annulled the charter of ]Massachuj?etts, so 
that not onh- were all rights and immunities based upon it 
swept away, but the title to private property was rendered 
invalid, and every rood of land claimed for the king. 
This was followed by the tx-rannical administration o( Sir 
Edmund Andros, which made the years from 1685 to 1688 
the darkest period in the histon- of Xcw England. The 
revolution which brought in William of Orange dro\e out 
Andros, but at the same time it put an end to the old 
Colonial Government. In 1692 Governor Phipps, appointed 
by the Crown, came over from England^vitlv a charter 
which united Alassachusetts Bay, Ph-mouth Colon}-, the 
\*ineyard archipelago, Maine, and Acadia, recentU- won 
from the Erench, into the one royal province of Massa- 
chusetts, which, with a slight interval, reached all the way 
from ^Martha's Vineyard to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. From 
that eventful year the body politic created by the men of 
the Mayflower ceased to have separate existence, and that 
new period in American history was entered upon which, 
beginning with the erection of a Crown colony under an 
English governor, ended with the Declaration of Independ- 
ence of 1776 and the creation of tlie^ reat nat ionality of 
the United States. 

The Puritan communit\- whose fortunes we have traced. 



THE UNITED COLONIES. 341 

created at first on English soil and under English influence, 
but developed under new conditions, presented, as we 
might expect, special characteristics of its own. Living in 
the atmosphere of the seventeenth century, it partook of 
its narrowness, but inspired by deeply religious forces it 
developed at the same time those sterling qualities of 
integrity, patient industry, enterprise and quiet self-control 
which both in the Old World and the New have ministered 
both to individual strength and national growth. In what 
may be designated the heroic period of its history there was 
a dignified simplicity and an old-world quaintness which 
gradually grew less as the generations became more and 
more removed from the original stock. At first wealth in- 
creased but slowly, and the habits of the people were averse 
from anything like luxurious display. Pleasures were few 
and simple, and men resorted to them only as relaxation from 
the more serious duties of life, and there was therefore small 
attraction in New England for such thriftless and pleasure- 
loving^idlers as had made the early attempts at colonisation 
i n Virgi nia so conspicuous a failure. A man must be 
possessed of substantial worth and show some sort of 
capacity if he would make his way in a country so stern 
in its conditions and requirements as that of New England 
wa s the n. 

Some of the settlements created were little more than 
mere groups of farmsteads, the people spreading wider as 
better land became available. Surrounded as they still 
were by Indians, there was an element of danger in this 
wider scattering, as the Virginia massacre had only too 
painfully proved, and therefore, according to the Plymouth 
Records, it was enacted that no colonist should settle on 
unoccupied land, unless he had with him ' such a competent 
company or number of inhabitants as the court shall 
/ judge meet to begin a society as may carry on things 
I in a satisfactory way both to civil and religious respects.' 



Thus ^1\>\^H\l U^t^thoV i\\ Whrtt WvMV M \\\^[ \m\w\ h\\^\\\C\ 

hvVH^s th^n u>\vu?^ tUo New K»v^Uvn\l yv^^\\\,u\ UvvnI vm\ l\i«i 
own Umt <^\ul ov\ the jmxhIvkt of his vnvn u>iK <vnvl tl\o 
tuwhov hv>u>T u\ wUivh ho \Kvv^lt wrts usvmUy the \\v>\k \M' 
his** own h<u\vK \ <u\vU\M\ls ^wvl »vnt svu^h as wviv t'vMU\vl 
in the oUl vvuntvy \ww Aluu^st \\\\knv>\v\\» ,u\vl \\vm\o vM' thv^ 
v^^Ky\U\ cwlcs sv> wvuch as wntAin such \v\n\ls as ' Icaso ' 
or Mt^wawC \^>t tu\\<^ \M\N«^ht its ohan^x^s, >\\\<l \vr<\Uh» 
AUvl tht^ v\Mi\toi1s <\\kI <x^t\nov\\onts which WT^Uh vMx\Ut^s, 
i\At«r«H^* iuctx>Ase<l Kirl>>' in v\>KM\ial histvMx IMwwul 
Jv>Kn^M\ v!escnlH\s the *oit\Mikf tvnvn*v>f Hvvst\M\ with its 
*cvMnel>* stuTts* Aw^^ its * builvli<i5;s ht\u»tilvil aiul la»>jr, 
sxMwe tairly s^^t torth with bnok, tilo <\nvi st\M\e.' ;u\vl toUs ns 
hvnv Nvw Haven stwHl l^vrth with its 'con\plctf ^tit^^ts, 
<«kI ib^ \st«hpl>* Anvi cvvstU* hvnuses,^ At the s»n\e tin\e 
there c\M\t\nne<\ to l>e that whv>lesvMne MenvUnj;^ of t\wvn 
a\H^ vvuntry life which in these UtxM^ ik\\"s has Kv\>tne less 
l>os:i^ble» AS the mral jx^jnUAtivxns e»\wv\l u>v>u^ aiul t\uM\^ 
intx> the cvMY^wstxHi districts ot' owr ki'^^e cities aixvl t\>wnsv 

V\m^ the tvtNt oentnr\* At le<\st the centre of it\teivst in a 
Xew Kn^lanvl town or viUxV^ti of the olden limes was the 
nwetitx^^house of the pkce» as the chuivh was callevi. It 
WAS iisuaUv Ainon^^ the eArlier bniUlin^^^ etxvteil ; hut tv> 
make j^nre vNf this, in 1075 it was enacuxl that a meetii\^^ 
hvH^se shouKl be erectevi it\ e\Yr\' t\^wn in the cv>lony : if 
the vx\>ple tailevl in this, the n\<v$iistrates woix^ ctnjx>\wrt\l 
tv> build it And char^t^ the cxv^t v^f its ertvtivMX on the towt\. 
At tvrst these buildin^^ wx-re sin^ple enonj:^\» but e\^t\tUAUy 
^~Aw i>lace u> th\xse of the sec\M\vl [>eriv\k which were 
sqwArt' wwvien bwilditxj;^ surn\vHn\txxi by a beltn*. v>r a 
tuiTet cvM\tainii\^^ a bell The meet inj;- house erxvtevl at 
Hi<\$i^>Am in lC<^l, nv>w^ the v>ldest in New Kix^lAnd, is a ttne 
s^yvimen of the n\eetin^^hc>uses of this j>erio».lv These wxmv 
Itollc^wwl by thv\ie w ith K-^w^r And spitf » like thAt of the Old 
Sv>uth At lk>st\>n» A style which was rejywtxxl tAr and i\eAr, 



/ /// ///// / / // ( nt mill' % '^1'/^ 

M;i,riy dfihe eariier t^huff^i )fui)4iui/<i '.tov/twA ilt^ Mt^fp, 
itu<\ v/ ^ryt'A ft^ hi ' for irn/tiUn jf/ttrmyUtic 

<.)iutt)t hut'h'/fi^y, ' .. . . /\^ 

th«rc were aiirMXpm^ i/f fUny/ '// , ' i// 

f'. •' ■ '■ ' ' ' . ■'/, tf/A 'fiiSy 

'm(f/rm% y. \y ihni it h v*'jy '//ifiUi^4i Urf i^t*c pt'/z^M 

r '4f 

'■:, „ iff 



f '. ?f/f tfc* 



/'-'/' 



344 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

and in 1664 it was ordered that if the wolf-slayer wished to 
obtain his reward he must bring the wolf's head, ' nail it to 
the meeting-house, and give notice thereof.' 

In the simpler times of colonial history, the people were 
called to their Sabbath worship by sound of horn or beat 
of drum, or by the blowing of a large conch-shell. In 
some places three guns were fired as the signal for ' church- 
time.' Like the call to prayer from the minaret towers at 
Cairo, the summons to worship was made more distinct by 
coming from the temple-roof. At Windsor, in 1638, a 
platform was erected on the top of the meeting-house, 
' from the lanthorn to the ridge, to walk conveniently to 
sound a trumpet or a drum to give warning to meeting ; ' 
and in 1647 it was the duty of Robert Basset, at New 
Haven, to ' drum twice upon the Lord's days and Lecture 
days, upon the meeting-house, that so those that live far 
off may hear the more distinctly.' In some cases the hour 
for worship was notified by the hoisting of a flag in addition 
to beat of drum or sound of horn. In process of time the 
ringing of a bell succeeded to these more primitive modes 
of call, the bell being hung, at first, on some tree, and 
afterwards in the bell-turret on the meeting-house roof. 

The house of prayer being reached, the worshippers 
seated themselves in the deep old-fashioned pews with 
their not too comfortable benches. While an almost rude 
political equality prevailed in the town meeting, very 
marked deference was paid in the meeting-house to social 
and family distinctions, as well as to age and official 
standing. In the earliest times of all, the congregation sat 
on mere benches, the men on one side and the women on 
the other. Then came the division of the floor-space into 
pews, and a formal assignment of seats according to social 
rank. In 1694, the town of Braintree authorised the select 
men to 'seat the meeting-house,' but as they showed 
themselves not over forward in settling the delicate matter 



THE UNITED COLONIES. 345 

of personal precedence, a special committee was appointed 
to see to the business, which they did, but, as may well 
be supposed, 'not to general satisfaction.' This New 
England custom of ' seating the meeting ' in conformity 
with the social position of the congregation was one which 
the early Fathers of the colony may have brought with 
them from the old country churches in England which 
they had known in their youth, and where it used not 
infrequently to breed ill-blood. In John Bunyan's native 
parish of Elstow, in Bedfordshire, for example, two of the 
parishioners were presented to the archdeacon's court, one 
of them charged with ' refusing to sit in a seat of the 
church where the churchwardens placed him,' the other, 
who was Bunyan's grandfather, for taking his neighbour's 
part, and telling the churchwardens they were ' forsworne 
men,' In like manner, in New England, it required 
pressure of fine and authority to put down discontent in 
this matter of settling the due order of precedence accord- 
ing to rank and importance. Whittier tells us how — 

[* In the goodly house of worship, where in order due and fit, 
As by pubhc vote directed, classed and ranked the people sit ; 
Mistress first and good wife after, clerkly squire before the clown, 
From the brave coat, lace embroidered, to the gray frock shading 
down.' 

Besides 'seating the meeting,' the officials had also to 
* dignify the meeting,' that is, so to arrange as that certain 
seats, though in different localities, should still be reckoned 
as equal in dignity. For example, the seating committee 
at Sutton used their ' best discretion ' in deciding that 
' the third seat below be equal in dignity with the foreseat 
in the front gallery, and the fourth seat below be equal in 
dignity with the foreseat in the side gallery.' In some 
towns rules amusing for their punctilious minuteness were 
found to prevail. Each year of the person's age counted 
one degree, military service eight degrees, and the magi- 



346 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

strata's office ten degrees ; further, every forty shillings 
paid in on the church-rate counted one degree. 

Little attention was, in earlier times, paid to the personal 
comfort of the congregation when gathered for worship. 
There was no attempt to warm the buildings, however 
stern the winter. If the weather were unusually bitter, the 
women brought footstoves filled with hot coals from the 
fire at home, or thrust their feet into fur bags made of 
wolfskins, but the men held on their way with Spartan 
severity, looking upon all warming arrangements beyond 
jack-boots, frieze stockings, and many-caped great-coats, 
as mere effeminacy. When the select men in a certain 
town on Buzzard's Bay proposed ' to purchase a stove and 
pipes, and furnish wood and attendance,' the majority at a 
town meeting decided by vote ' not to purchase a stove 
and pipes ; not to furnish wood and attendance.' And 
Judge Sewall, a typical character of the time, the Pepys 
Diarist of New England life, records of a certain Sunday 
thus : ' Extraordinary cold storm of wind and snow ; blows 
much more as coming home at noon, and holds on. Bread 
was frozen at Lord's Table. . . . Yet was very comfortable 
at meeting.' On another occasion, again, he tells us the 
day was so bitterly cold that ' the Communion bread was 
frozen pretty hard, and rattled sadly into the plates.' 
Still the worthy judge and his stout-hearted contempo- 
raries held on their way, and it was not till 1773 that the 
first church in Boston took the lead in setting up a stove to 
warm the shivering limbs of the worshippers. 

The weather might be cold, but the service was not 
necessarily shortened on that account. It is stated that at 
the planting of the first church in Woburn, Massachusetts, 
good Zachary Symmes showed his godliness and en- 
durance by preaching between four and five hours. How 
his hearers showed theirs, the historian has not told us. 
The occasion w^as special, possibly the patience of the 



THE UNITED COLONIES. 3;; 

audience was special also. Even the laymen when they 
turned preachers, as they sometimes did, were not much 
more merciful than the ministers. Judge Sevvall, after 
expounding at a service at Plymouth Meeting, writes 
somewhat remorsefully, ' being afraid to look at the glass,' 
that is, the hour-glass which measured the time, ' ignorantly 
and unwittingly I stood two hours and a half.' We can 
see from this how needful it might be for the select men of 
Salem in 1676 to order 'that the three constables do 
attend at the three great doors of the meeting-house every 
Lord's Day, at the end of the sermon both forenoon and 
afternoon, and to keep the doors fast and suffer none to go 
out before the whole exercise be ended.' Under such 
lengthy prelections, it is not wonderful that some of the 
carnal were seen making stealthily for the door when that 
was possible, and that even devout listeners felt a sense of 
drowsiness which could only be resisted by standing up, or 
by taking off their heavy coats, or by going out to quiet 
their horses ; the tithing man, too, must have found his 
office no sinecure, as he moved from place to place in 
the meeting-house recalling the sleepers in this pew and 
that to consciousness with his wand. 

A New England service in those days was probably not 
very exhilarating from a poetical or musical point of view. 
Few services in the seventeenth century were, either on 
one side of the Atlantic or the other. Even in the Church 
of England, as Thomas Fuller reminds us, the piety of the 
hymns was better than the poetry, and nearly a century 
later John Wesley went so far as to call it scandalous 
doggrel. As for the music, even a Churchman describes it 
as that ' shameful mode of psalmody almost confined to 
the wretched solo of a parish clerk, or to a few persons 
huddled together in one corner of the church, who sang to 
the praise and glory of themselves for the entertainment 
and often to the wearisomeness of the congregation.' This 



348 PILGRIM FA THERS OF NE W ENGLAND. 

being the state of things in the national church at home, 
even on into the eighteenth century, it is scarcely won- 
derful if the congregations of New England were not 
altogether models as to the best form of practising 
psalmody in public worship. 

The Pilgrim Fathers themselves, while in Holland, like 
the English Church at home, used Sternhold and Hopkins' 
Version of the Psalms until, in 1612, Henry Ainsworth, 
the teacher of the Separatist Church in Amsterdam, 
brought out another version under the title, ' The Book of 
Psalms. Englished both in Prose and Metre.' It com- 
menced with a ' Preface declaring the use and reason of the 
Book,' also, ' for the use and edification of saints,' what 
were thought to be appropriate tunes were printed above 
each psalm in the lozenge-shaped notes of Queen Eliza- 
beth's time ' The singing notes,' says the author, * I have 
most taken from our Englished psalms when they will fit 
the measure of the verse,' for the other long verses 'the 
gravest and easiest tunes of the French and Dutch Psalms.' 
This book of Ainsvvorth's the Pilgrims brought over with 
them to New England, and it was used in the church at 
Plymouth as late as 1692, although a later version had 
been compiled and printed in Boston as early as 1640. In 
some churches both the two versions were used side by 
side for several years, till at length the style of the more 
modern proved too much even for the sacred associations 
of the more ancient. 

This later version, which little by little superseded that 
made by Ainsworth, and was known as The Bay Psalm 
Book,-w2iS compiled by several divines, revised by President 
Dunster, of Harvard College, and printed in his house in 
1643. If we except a small almanac which preceded it, 
this was the first book printed in New England. By 1709, 
after various revisions, it had gone through sixteen editions, 
some of these being printed abroad, in England and Scot- 



il 



THE UNITED COLONIES. 349 

land. Altogether, about seventy editions were issued, but 
by the end of the eighteenth century the Bay Psalm Book 
had fallen into disuse, and has now become a literary 
curiosity. A copy of the first edition, which once belonged 
to Bishop Tanner, is preserved in the Bodleian, another 
was, in 1855, purchased for the Lenox Library in New 
York for eighty pounds, and a third was sold in Boston, in 
1876, for over a thousand dollars. 

The musical rendering of this Bay Psalm Book in the 
worship of the churches was of the simplest sort, for 
previous to 1700 there seem only to have been about ten 
tunes in use, such as Oxford, Litchfield, York, Windsor, 
Cambridge, St. David's and Martyrs. The preface to the 
edition of the Psalm Book printed in 1698, gave 'some 
few directions ' on the concluding pages, so as to secure 
that the tune might be sung within the compass of the 
people^s voices ' without squeaking above or grumbling 
below.' Li the earlier time there seems to have been no 
separate choir or official precentor, and, therefore, the 
'tuning the Psalm,' as it w^as called, was left to some 
member of the congregation who volunteered the per- 
formance. No less a person than Judge Sewall himself 
undertook this function at Boston, and it is both pathetic 
and amusing to find from his diary how often he was 
baffled in the execution of the simple service he had under- 
taken. Sometimes he is self-complacent, and flatters 
himself he ' set the psalm well,' at other times he is just 
as crestfallen. Says he, on one occasion : ' I intended 
Windsor, and fell into high Dutch, and then essaying to 
set another tune, went into a key much too high. So I 
prayed to Mr. White to set it, which he did well. Litch- 
field Tune. The Lord humble me and instruct me that 
I should be the occasion of any interruption in the worship 
of God.' Sometimes, when he had the right tune, the 
congregation were too strong for him, and carried another 



350 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

tune against him. Thus runs his diary on a certain day : 
' In the morning I set York tune, and in the second going 
over the gallery carried it irresistibly to St. David's, which 
discouraged me very much.' Nor was this the only time ; 
later on he writes : ' I set York tune, and the congregation 
went out of it into St. David's in the very second going 
over. They did the same three weeks before. This is 
the second sign. It seems to me an intimation for me 
to resign the precentor's place for a better voice. I have 
through the Divine long-suffering and favour done it for 
twenty-four years, and now God in His providence seems 
to call me off, my voice being enfeebled.' Enfeebled with 
age the good man's voice might be, but his heart was right. 
Referring to the service on a certain Sunday, he says : 
* The song of the fifth Revelation was sung. I was ready 
to burst into tears at the words, " bought with Thy blood." ' 
Good music is good indeed, but there may be something 
even better still. 

If the meeting-house and its services played so large a 
part in New England life, we may easily see how important 
was the place filled by the minister himself. In laying out 
a new town settlement some of the best town-lots were set 
aside for his use, these being sometimes a gift outright to 
the first settled preacher, and sometimes set aside as glebes 
or 'ministry land.' At Sippican, in 1680, the first and 
second house-lots drawn were appropriated with two 
meadows and two lots in the best of the woodland 'for 
the minister and the ministry.' At Rochester, in 1697, the 
proprietors of the lands gave a ' whole share of upland and 
meadow ground to the minister, upon condition that he 
continueth in the work of the ministry among them till 
prevented by death.' It was the custom also on starting a 
new settlement to build a parsonage for the minister, to the 
construction of which all the town contributed, some giving 
work or money or the use of a horse or ox-team, others 



THE UNITED COLONIES. 351 

supplying- boards, stone, bricks, logs or nails. It was the 
custom too to allow free pasturage for the minister's horse ; 
and in 1662 the Town Court at Plymouth judged it 'would 
be very commendable and beneficial to the towns where 
God's providence shall cast any whales if they should agree 
to set apart some part of every such fish or oil for the 
encouragement of an able and godly minister among them.' 
At Newbury the first salmon caught each year went to the 
minister ; and in most places the ' minister's wood ' was a 
recognised institution, each church member bringing his 
portion of wood for the minister's fire to the parsonage 
door. 

At first the minister's stipend was settled by voluntary 
agreement, but in 1657, when the first generation had 
passed away, an Act was passed in Plymouth ordering a 
rate to be levied in each township for the maintenance of a 
teaching ministry. In Massachusetts, as early as 1637, an 
order of the court imposed a rate for the maintenance of a 
minister on all the inhabitants of Newbury, whether church 
members or not. But, however maintained, voluntarily, or 
by tithes or rates levied upon willing and unwilling alike, 
the ministers in the towns of the United Colonies exercised 
powerful influence, political as well as religious and 
intellectual, were usually treated with respect and regarded 
as privileged persons. There were exceptions, of course, 
but perhaps even these only proved the rule. We read of 
a man at New Haven who was punished by the town for 
venturing to say that he ' received no profit from the 
minister's sermons,' though possibly the punishment might 
more fitly have fallen upon the preacher rather than the 
hearer ; a man at Plymouth who ' spoke deridingly of the 
minister's powers,' and another at Andover who 'cast 
uncharitable reflections ' on his pastor, were fined and 
deprived of the sacrament. Such things as these occurred, 
but as a rule friendly relations obtained, and the New 



35 2 PIL GRIM FA THERS IX NEW EXGLA XD. 

England ministers of religion exercised a wide and whole- 
some influence on the rising communities among whom 
their lives were spent. In those infant settlements they 
had often to be many men in one : preaching and pra\-ing 
on Sabbaths and lecture days ; preparing young men for 
college ; giving medical and ' chyrurgycal ' advice as 
doctors ; sought after for legal counsel and adjudication 
as lawyers ; and often having to work on their own land as 
farmers ; they most of them lived earnest and laborious 
lives, and were ' pious ajid painful preachers,' doing their 
best for their flocks, both for this world and the next. 

The tithing man in a New England town was an unique 
kind of ofificer. the connecting link between the secular 
and the spiritual. For it was his function, as his name 
implied, to have ten families under his charge, and 'dili- 
gently inspect them,' especially on the Sabbath, to see 
that they regularly came to meeting, and with foxtail wand 
keep them awake when they were there. He had also to 
enforce the learning of the catechism by the children of 
these ten families, and sometimes to hear them say it. He 
had, too, to watch licensed houses of entertainment, and 
make complaint of all disorders and misdemeanours com- 
mitted therein ; to report to the justices all idle persons, 
profane swearers, Sabbath-breakers, and the like offenders ; 
and to warn tavern-keepers not to sell more liquor to men 
who in his judgment had had sufficient already. In 
addition to these varied duties, the tithing man warned 
out of the town undesirable people who might come to 
be dependent ; administered the oath of fidelity to new 
inhabitants ; watched to see that no young people walked 
abroad on the eve of the Sabbath ; and marked and re- 
ported all those * who profanely behaved, lingered \\ithout 
doors at meeting-time on the Lord's Day, sons of Belial 
strutting about or sitting on fences, and otherwise dese- 
crating the day.' In case of any of these malpractices, 



THE UNITED COLONIES. 353 

the culprit, on conviction, was first admonished, and then, 
if incorrigible, set in the parish stocks or confined in the 
cage on the meeting-house green. 

The somewhat close surveillance of the life of the com- 
munity thus set up by what has been called the Puritan 
theocracy in New England, has no doubt done much to 
associate the ideas of narrowness and intolerance with the 
name of Puritanism. While endeavouring to enforce re- 
ligious observances and the moralities of life by means of 
external restraint, it probably meant well, it has been said, 
but as a religious system it became repellent and unlovely, 
and looked out frowningly upon the innocent pleasures and 
winsome graces of life. Matthew Arnold gave voice to a 
wide-spread feeling when he said that the voyagers in the 
Mayflower would have proved intolerable company for 
Shakespeare and Virgil. It may be so, or it may not. 
Perhaps in the case of Shakespeare we may be forgiven if 
we hesitate to accept this opinion, for the many-sided 
dramatist was in sympathy with all sorts and conditions 
of men, found something to interest and much to speculate 
upon in the most ordinary forms of life around him ; more- 
over there is not a little which seems to indicate that he 
had sincere respect for much of the earnest-minded Puri- 
tanism of his time. As for Virgil, we may admit the 
probability that if he had lived some eighty years later 
than he did, and had happened to be sailing for Italy in a 
certain ship of Alexandria, he might have found even the 
Apostle Paul ' intolerable company ; ' and when he heard 
him say, one morning, in the midst of the storm — ' There 
stood by me this night an angel of the God whose 
I am, whom also I serve,' like his countryman, Festus, 
Virgil would probably have said, ' Paul, thou art beside 
thyself, thy much learning doth turn thee to madness ! ' 
.Still, all the same, Paul's passionate love to Christ was 
a grander, truer thing than Virgil's offering worship 

2 A 



354 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

"to the genius of the emperor ; his consecration to the 
service of humanity more ennobhng than Virgil's half- 
sceptical devotion to the gods of the Pantheon. When it 
•is assumed that the men of the Mayflower were narrow- 
minded, uninteresting and commonplace, it is forgotten that 
one of them, William Brewster, was in his younger days 
the trusted and well-beloved friend of one of Queen 
Elizabeth's Secretaries of State ; that in the Netherlands he 
consorted for months with some of the great ambassadors 
of the time ; and that as a Cambridge scholar he was found 
•capable of instructing the students of the Leyden Uni- 
versity where he dwelt It is forgotten too that another of 
the voyagers in the Mayflower, William Bradford, proved 
his capacity and largeness of mind by giving us a History 
<of Plyinoiitli Plaritation which, by its racy English, its far- 
reaching insight and quiet strokes of pathos and humour, 
might have beguiled even Shakespeare himself for an hour 
•or more. Finally, it is forgotten also that even among the 
rest in that historic ship there were, Samuel Fuller, a 
trained physician and a gentleman, John Carver, deemed 
meet to be the first governor of the Colony, Miles Standish, 
a member of an old Lancashire family, who had seen 
military service in the Netherlands, and Edward Winslow, 
a Worcestershire gentleman of name and repute. With 
such companions and many others of the rank and file 
marked by strength of character and mother-wit, an 
Atlantic voyage may have been stormy, but it need not 
'have been dull. 

Then again if we come to the Puritan successors of the 
Pilgrim Fathers, the men who went over to New England 
between 1628 and 1643, many of them, it is no exaggera- 
tion to say, were of the flower of the English nation. John 
Winthrop was a country gentleman living on his own estate, 
and representing in his profession of the law the culture and 
refinement of the time ; Isaac Johnson and John Humphrey 



THE UNITED COLONIES. 355 

were the brothers-in-law of the Earl of Lincoln ; Theophilus 
Eaton was a prosperous city merchant ; and many others 
of the men of Massachusetts and Connecticut may for 
social position and culture as well as strength of character 
be taken as favourable specimens of the best portions of 
the English society of their time. So too with the 
ministers of religion who went out to the Colonies. They 
must be very distinguished men indeed who would be 
entitled to look down patronisingly upon men like John 
Cotton of Boston, John Davenport of New Haven, Peter 
Bulkely of Concord, Francis Higginson of Salem, Thomas 
Hooker of Hartford, Henry Dunster of Cambridge, John 
Harvard of Charlestown, John Eliot of Roxbury, and many 
more of the nearly ninety Cambridge and Oxford graduates 
who helped to build up the intellectual and spiritual life oi 
tTie New England Colonies. Whatever difference there 
may be between these men and the best in our own time 
arises simply from the difference between the seventeenth 
century and the nineteenth. If they seem to us narrow 
and intolerant in some of the actions of their lives, they 
were yet striking examples of large-mindedness and 
tolerance when placed in contrast with men like Whitgift, 
Bancroft, or Laud. 

Judged by the light of to-day, they may be said to have 
made some grave and serious mistakes. They suppressed 
the expression of hostile opinion, and they persecuted in 
some individual cases men and women, who, however wild 
and impracticable at the time, might have proved harmless 
enough if left to find their own level in their own way. 
The most strenuous advocate of the Puritans, too, will 
scarcely deny that there was in the New England mind 
as formed by them, especially after the first and second 
generations had passed away, a certain intellectual hard- 
ness, a lack of interest in the productions of artistic genius, 
a foolish contempt for the minor elegancies of life, letters, 

2 A 2 



356 PILGRIM FATHERS OF NEW ENGLAND. 

and manners. Some of this may doubtless be owing to 
the hard conditions of toil under which many of their lives 
were lived, and something also to the distance the colonies 
were removed from the ancient centres of civilisation. But 
this is not the whole explanation. In the eloquent words 
of a native of New England of our own time, the Puritan 
' ' has not remembered that to some minds a relish for 
what is lovely in fancy and in art is as native as colour to 
the violet, fragrance to the rose, or song to the bird ; that 
God's own mind must eternally teem with beauty, since He 
lines with it the tiny sea-shell, and tints the fish, and tones 
the hidden fibres of trees, and flashes it on breast and crest 
of flying birds, and breaks the falling avalanche into 
myriads of feathery crystals, and builds the skies in a 
splendour, to a rhythm, which no thought can match. It 
has been a narrowness, though a narrowness that has 
had depth in it, and that has not been merely superficial 
and noisy. And it has been a narrowness for which the 
Puritan has suffered in the diminution of his influence in 
the world, and in the darkening of his fame, more than 
others for conspicuous crimes.'^ 

Still, when all this has been said, and allowance has 
been made for all possible drawbacks, there remains about 
these men a certain moral grandeur. They had great and 
high qualities, the solid virtues on which stable common- 
wealths are founded, and they created such colonies 
as no other men in those days did : colonies that grew 
into a great nation, which has not even yet reached the 
summit of its greatness. There was in these makers 
of New England a grand masterful sincerity, a noble 
courage of conviction, an overwhelming sense of the 
authority of righteousness in human life, and an ever- 
present consciousness of God's personal rule over the 
world, in spite of all its confusions. These men felt, as few 
' R. S. Storrs. The Furitan Spirit. Boston. 1889. 



Tim UNITED COLONIES. y^j 

men have ever felt, the greatness of that human soul for 
the redemption of which Christ has died ; which has to 
work out its earthly history before the background of 
eternity, while passing thither to its mysterious destiny ; 
and there was ever before their thought the glorious ideal 
of a kingdom of the heavens yet to be realised on the 
earth. 

' O prophets, martyrs, saviours, ye were great, 

All truth being great to you : ye deemed man more 
Than a dull jest, God's ennui to amuse : 
The world for you, held purport ; Life ye wore 
Proudly, as kings their solemn robes of state ; 
And humbly, as the mightiest monarchs use.' 



11 



LIST OF WORKS 

QUOTED OR OTHERWISE REFERRED TO. 



TAGE 

Accotmt of the Hospital of St. 

Mary Magdalen, near Scrooby . 44 

Ainsworth (H.), Coicnterpoyson . 23 
Ames (W.), Mannduction for 

Mr. Robinson 149 

Antwerp Church Records ... 56 

Assize of Clarendon .... 18 

Barry (J. S.), History of Massa- 

chtisetts 6 

Bay Psalm Book, the .... 348 
Bentivoglio, Relazione di Fiandra 125 
Bernard (R.), Christian Adver- 
tisements and Counsels of Peace 130, 

143 

Faithfull Shepeard ... 82 

Isle of Man, the, or, the Legall 

Proceeding ifi Alan-shire against 

Sin 78 

Plea for Infants . . . coti- 

ccrning Baptism 78 

Birch MSS. 3?4 

Borgeaud, Rise of Modern De- 
mocracy 16 

Bradford (W.), Dialogues . . 22, 119 
History of Plymouth Planta- 
tion 5, 6, 57, 76, 129, 132, 

246, 354 
'Bxod\\Q2i.A, History of Neia York. 185 
Browne (R.), Treatise of Reforma- 
tion without tarrying ... 36 

T7-ue and Short Declaration 3 1 

Bunyan (J.), Holy War ... 78 

Camden Society 18 

Carleton (D.), Letters. 160, 161, 163 
Colonial Papers . 175, 185, 227, 339 
Confutation of the Rhemish trans- 
lation 161 



page: 
De Regimine Ecclesia: Scoticance . 16 1, 

163. 
Dexter (F. B.), Influence of Ejtg- 
lish Universities in Development 
of New Eiigland . . . 266, 307 
Discourse of some troubles in 

the . . . Chjirch at Amsterdam. 1 15, 

Domesday Book 45 

Doyle (J. A.), English in America 219, 

266, 338. 

Ellis, Original Letters ... 51. 

Fiske (J.), The Beginnings of 

New England .... 267, 321 
Yo^Q ^.), Acts and Monuments . 23, 
Freeman (E. A.), Introd. to 

American Institutional History 24C' 

Gardiner (S. R.), History of 

England 288. 

Gray's (Archbishop) Register. . 50 

Grindals Life 27 

Ground of the First Planting of 

New England, the . . . . 253-. 

Hall (J.), Apology of the Church 

of Eftgland 152^ 

Hanbury (B.), Historical Me- 
morials 181 

Harleian MSS. .... 38, 85, 
Harmony of the Confessions . . 250 
Harrison (R.), Little Treatise . 32 

Half eld MSS: 65,291 

Henty Fill , Letters and Papers . 53; 
Howard (J.), Survey of the State 

of Prisons . . . . ' • • 82 
Hunter's Collections coiicernifigthe 
Early History of the Founders 
of New Plymouth . 43> 64. 65, 7C 



36o 



PILGRIM FA THERS 



PAGE 
Hutchinson (T.), History of 
Massachtiselts , . . . , 5 

Joyce (H.), History of the Post 

Office to 1836 ... . 62, 63 

Lamentable Complaint of the 

Commojtaltie 29 

Lansdowne Jl/SS 36, 95 

Lathbury (T.), History of Episco- 
pacy 85 

Leland's Itinerary 53 

Manchester, MSS. of the Puke of 179, 
180, 185 

Mather (C), Jllagnalia Christi 
Americana 314 

^lorton (N.), Nrd) Efigland's 
Memorial . . .5, 200, 203, 262 

:Motley (J. L.), United Nether- 
lands 113 

Mozley (T.), Reminiscences . , 86 

Nederlandsche Archief voor Kerke- 

lijke Geschiedenis .... 120 

Newburgh's Chronicle ... 17 

Nru) York Historical Collections . 262 

Paralleles, Censures, Ohserva- 

tio7is 83, 91 

Perth Assembly . . . . 161, 163 

Planter'' s Plea, the 271 

Prince's Annals 5 

Privy Council Register . . 54, 64 
Proceedings of the Kotiinklijke 
Akademie 1 18 

Raine (J.), History and Anti- 
quities of the Parish of Blyth . 45 

Kobinson (J.), Appendix to Mr. 
Perkins'' Six Principles . • . 95 

Just and Necessary Apology 

of Brow7iists 154 

— — Justification of Separation . 143 

Matiumission to a Mann- 

duction 136, 149 

Neiv Essays: or. Observa- 
tions Divine and Moral . . 137 

People's Plea for the exercise 

of Prophecy 152 



OF NEW ENGLAND. 

PAGE 
Robinson (J.), Religious Com- 

nuinion, Private and Public . 148 

Works .... 83, 84, 96, 

100, 128, 131, 136 
Rogers (R.), Seven Treatises . . 313 

Seebohm (F.), English Village 

Community 258, 259 

Smith (J.), New England Trials, ii"] 
Smyth (John), The Bright Morn- 
ing Star re 91 

The Retraction of his errors 91 

Stark (A.), History of Gains- 
borough 88 

State Papers, Domestic 26, 28, 30, 37, 57, 

60, 63, 75, 162, 167, 170, 270, 324 

Storrs (R. S.), The Puritan Spirit 356 

Strype, Annals 44 

■ Life of Grindal .... 27 

Surtees' Society 65 

Thompson (P.), History of Boston 104 
TrCiVe Markes of Chris fs Church, 
the 26 

Vision of Piers PloTvtnan ... 18 

Wall (T.), More Work for the 

Dean 32 

Washburn (E. A.), Epochs in 

Chwch History 291 

Wilberforce (S.), Histoiy of the 

Protestant Episcopal Church in 

America 6 

Winslow (E.), Brief Narration . 191 
— ■ — Hypocrisy Unmasked . . 180 
Winsor (J.), The Mayfiower Toicm 329 
Winthrop (J.), Histoiy of Nrdo 

England . . . . 286, 301, 332 

Life and Letters . 299330,331 

Wolsey (Cardinal), Tivelve Ejig- 

lish Statesmen $0 

Wordsworth (W.), Ecclesiastical 

Soimets 4, iS 

Vates (J.), Pei'sons Prophesying 

out of Ofiice 152 

Young's Chronicles 105, 129, 131, 279 

Zurich Letters 25 



I NDEX 



Abigail, sailing of the, 273 

Act against heretics, 20 

of Supremacy, the, 21 

Adventurers, the, 242, seq. 

Ainsworth, Henry, 1 17 

Alden, John, 203 

Allerton, Isaac, assistant governor, 
219 

America. See also Connecticut, Massa- 
chusetts, New England, and Ply- 
mouth. 

Crown Colony established in, 340 

American Democracy, the father of, 
321 

Federal Union, the first, 335 

self-government, origin of, 16 

Amersham, Separatists at, 21 

Ames, William, on Communion, 
149, seq. 

Amsterdam an asylum of liberty, 113 
first Protestant Church in, 117 
picture of Church life in, 118 

Anne, arrival of the, 238 

Argall, Captain, 173 

Arminian and Calvinist controversy, 

133 

Arminius, followers of, 133 
Arnold, Matthew, quoted, 353 
Articles of the Church at Leyden, 

175 
Assize of Clarendon, 17 
Austerfield, 65, seq. 

Babworth, its Rector, 77 
Balowe, William, 20 
Barneveld, John of, 134 



Barrowe, Henry, 37 

Barrowists or Brownists, 97 

Bawtry, 43, seq. 

Bay Psalm Book., the, 348JI 

Bellingham, Richard, 104 ,268 

Bermudas, Presbyterianism in the, 179 

Bernard, a prison reformer, 81 

his influence on Bunyan, 78 

his transient sympathy with Con- 
gregationalism, 83 

his writings, 78, 82, 130, 143 
Blackwell, Francis, 184 
Blossom, Thomas, on John Robinson, 

252 
Bolton, John, 23 
Boston, Lincolnshire, 103 

John Cotton's Ministry in, 307- 
312 

Puritanism in, 104 
Bowland, Thomas, martyr, 26 
Bradford, William, 65, seq. 

in Leyden, 126 

chosen Governor, 219 

third time elected Governor, 241 

his writings, 5, 6, 22, 43, 57, 76, 
119, 129, 132, 246, 354 

death of his wife, 208 

his death, 337 

quoted, 22 

on John Robinson and Richard 
Chfton, 97 
Bradfords, social position of the, 69 
Bradfurth's (Robert) will, 69 
Bradstreet, Simon, 26S 
Brethren of the Second Separation, the, 
85 



u 



362 



INDEX. 



Brewer, Thomas, 131 

prints prohibited books, 160, seq. 

arrested, 162 

surrender to English authorities, 
165 

imprisoned, 167 

his release, 168 
Brewster, William, 54 

appointed Post of Scrooby, 61 

his religious zeal, 93 

persecution of, 98, seq.- 

in Leyden, 126 

prints prohibited books, 160, seq. 

his kindness, 211 

death of his wife, 254 

his death, 336 
Bright, Francis, 277, 284 

withdraws from Salem Church, 287 
Britain, rural economy of, 258 
Bromhead, Hugh, 85 
Brooks of Queenhithe, 23 
Browne, John and Samuel, 287 

sent back to England, 288 
, Robert, 30-33 

his writings, 31, 36 
Brownists, the, 97 

Confession of Faith, 175 

decision to avoid the name, 190 

Robinson, J., in defence of the, 
154, seq. 
Builli, John de, 43 
Bulkely, Peter, 314 
Bunyan influenced by Richard Bernand, 

78 
Burgess, Dr. John, 269 
Burial Hill fort, 263 
Burleigh, Lord, 32 

Bury St. Edmunds, Congregationalism 
at, 32 

its Abbey, 33 

revolt against ecclesiastical' domi- 
nation in, 35 

stronghold of the ancient faith, 
33-35 

Calvin 1ST and Arminian controversy, 

133 
Cape Cod, Pilgrims land at, 201 
Carleton, Mr., suggests a settlement 

of the Puritan question, 169 



Carleton, Sir Dudley, informs against: 
Brewer and Brewster, 160, seq. 

Carver, John, 131 
his death, 218 

Catchpole, the office of, 103 

Charity, arrival of the, 241 

Chaucer hostile to priestly system, 19 

Chauncey, Charles, 318 

Child born in New England, the first, 
206 

Church discipline in Virginia, 173 

Church Fellowship, covenant of, 286 
qualifications for, 292 

Church Government, divergent views • 
on, 119 

Robinson and others on, 128, 145, 
seq. 

Church life in Amsterdam, 1 18 

Church in Leyden, 129 

Church of England, Robinson on the, 

156 

Church Service, see Ritual. 

Clough, A. H., quoted, 158 

Clyfton, Richard, his character, 77, 

97 

at Scrooby, 94 
remains at Amsterdam, 127 
Colchester, Separatists at, 22 
Colonists, ill-disciplined, 230 
Communion, religious, Robinson and 

Ames on, 148, seq. 
Communistic System at Plymouth, 

234 
Compact of the Pilgrim Fathers, 201 
Company of Massachusetts Bay, the. 

276 
Concord, the founder of, 314 
Confederation of New England Colo- 
nies, 331, seq. 
Confession of Faith, Brownist, 175 
Congregationalism, by whom founded. 

30 
Congregationalists, early, 30 
Connecticut, constitution of, 320 
Settlement, trouble with Indians, 

321 
Constitution of the Puritan Colony, 

basis of the, 201 
Contra-Remonstrants, 133 
Copping, John, 33, 35 



INDEX. 



363 



Cotton, John, 105, 268 

his ministry at Boston, 307-312 

his death 337 
Courtenay, Archbishop, 19 
Covenant of Church fellowship, 286 
" Covenant of the Lord," the, 74 
Cradock, Matthew, 275 
Crown Colony established in America, 

340 
Cushman, Robert, 131 

his death, 251 

Davenport, John, 323 
Davison, William, 55, seq. 

his fall, 58 
Delfshaven, the start from, 193 
Democracy, rise of, arrested, 16 

transplanted, 16 

De Rassieres, Isaac, 260, seq. 
Dorchester, emigrants from, 272 
Dort, origin of the Synod of, 135 
Downes, William, of Scrooby, 69 
Dudley, Thomas, 26S 
-Dutch opinion of the Protestants, 132 

Sabbath breakers, 159 

settlement in New England, 260 

Duxbury Settlement, 328 

East Anglia, Congregationalism in, 

30 

East England's share in the Reforma- 
tion, 266 

Eaton, Theophilus, 323 

Education in New England, 338 

Eliot, John, 317 

Elizabethan Free Church described, 

25 

Endicott, John, 273 

Episcopal Government versjis Presby- 
terian, 290, seq. 

Episcopalianism in New England, 243 

Episcopalians ejected from Plymouth 
Colony, 247 

Epworth, 78 

Exiled Protestants, fellowship of, 24 

Federal Union, the first in America, 

335 
First Comers, number of the, 240 
" First Encounter," 207 



Fitz, Richard, 22, 31 

his Church described, 25 

persecuted to death, 26 
Forefathers, number of the, 240 
Fort on Burial Hill, 263 
Fortune, arrival of the ship, 224 

capture of, 226 
Fouler, Gyles, 26 
Four Sisters, the ship, 280, 283 
Foxe, quoted, 21 
Free Church, Elizabethan, described, 

25 
Free Church Martyrs, the first, 33 
Freedom of worship, early asserted, 

15-21 
Freeman, E. A., quoted, 240 
Freewill, strife concerning, 133 
Fuller, Samuel, physician, 274 

Gainsborough, Separatist Community 

in, 85, seq. 
Gascoyne, Adam, 54 
Gayton, Mr., 35 
George, the ship, 279, 283 
Gifford, Robert, 84 
Goffe, Thomas, 275 
Gomarus, followers of, 133 
Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 172 

, Robert, 243 

Government in New England Colonies, 

240, 304, seq. 
" Governor and Company of the 

Massachusetts Bay," the, 276 
Graves, Thomas, 281 
Greenwood, John, 36-39 
Grindal, Archbishop, 53 
, quoted, 27 

Hall, Bishop Joseph, on Separation, 

142 
Handscomb, Mr., 35 
Hanson, John, 69 
Harrison, Robert, 32 
Harvard College founded, 338 
Harvard, John, 318 

his munificence, 338 
Heath, Richard, quoted, 123 
Helwisse, Thomas, 100 
Heretics, early persecution of, 20 
Hickmans, the, 87 



364 



INDEX, 



Higginson, Francis, 271, 278 

his death, 303 
Hobart, Peter, 318 
Holland, development of industry in, 

"3 

Protestant exiles in, I lo. seq. 

Sabbath profanation in, 159 
Holy War, Banyan's, inspired by 

Bernard's Isle of Man, 78 
Homiletics, a study in, 82 
Hooker, Thomas, 319 
Hough, Atherton, 268, 269 
Howard, John, anticipated, 81 
Humphrey, John, 275 

Indian attack on Settlers, 206, 227, 

233. 321, 339 

chiefs avow loyalty to James I., 

222. 

welcome to the Settlers, 213, seq. 

treaty with Settlers, 216 

hospitality, 220 

massacre of Virginian Settlers, 227 

plot revealed, 230 

Indians, conflict with, 206, 227, 233, 

321, 339 

Eliot's influence on, 317, 318 
war with, 339 
Insurrection against Protestantism, 74 
Ireland suggested as Puritan Colony, 

169 
Isle ofMati, Bernard's inspires Bunyan's 
Holy War, 78 
synopsis of, 81 
Islington, Congregationalism at, 31 

Jackson, Richard, 98 

James I. and Nonconformity, 180 

Johnson, Francis, 38, 91, 114, seq. 

, Isaac, 275 

his death, 303 

Kilham's (Alexander) birthplace, 78 

Laud and Colonial Administration, 319 
and Episcopacy, 291 
his treatment of Puritans, 270 

Lay-preaching, controversy on, 1^)2, seq. 

Legislature in New England Colonies, 
304, seq. 



Leland, quoted, 46, 52 

Lever, Thomas, 24 

Leverett, Thomas, 268 

Le3'den, 121, seq. 

, exiles' Meeting-house in, 124 

its University, 122 

fierce theological controversy in, 

133 

lay ministry in, 154 
reason for leaving, 158, seq. 

Leyden Brethren decide for Virginia, 
182 

Leyden Church, Articles of Religion, 

175 
life in, 129 

flourishing condition of, 253 
letter to Plymouth Church, 252 

Lincoln, Lord, 267 

Lincolnshire and Nonconformity, 268 

Lion's Whelp, the ship, 279, 283 

Little James, arrival of the ship, 228 

Lollard movement, the, 20 

London, Separatists at, 22 

Lyford, John, 244, seq. 

Manhattan, Dutch settlement at, 

260 
Man, Thomas, 21 
Marian Church, the, 22 
Martyrs for Free Church principles, the 

first, 33, 35 
Massachusetts Bay visited by Settlers, 

222 
Massachusetts Bay Company, 295 

charter granted, 276 

its equipment, 280, seq. 

prosperity of, 306 

its charter annulled, 340 
Massachusetts Settlement, the, 265, seq. 

its relations with Plymouth Colony, 
329, seq. 
Massasoit, Indian chief, 215 

his illness and cure, 229 

Pilgrim embassy to, 219 

I'ilgrims arm in defence of, 222 
Masterman, J. H. B., quoted, 4 
Mather, Cotton, 314 

quoted, 267 
Mather, Increase, 314 
, Richard, 314 



y 



INDEX. 



365 



Maurice, Prince, 134 

his death, 251 
Mayflower, the, 280, 283 

saihngofthe, 184-208 

size of, 188 

arrives at Cape Cod, 201 

return to England, 217 
Merchant Adventurers, 242, seq. 
Middleburg in Zealand, Congregational 

Church at, 32 
Minister, the, in New England life, 350 
Ministers, Bernard's advice to, 82 
Minister's calling, views on the, 284 
Ministry, a lay, controversy on, 152, seq. 

, Ordination to the, 285 

Monastic orders, influence of, 75 
Morrell, William, 243 
Morton, George, arrives at Plymouth, 
238 

■ , Nicholas, 44 

, Robert, 43 

Motley's United Netherlands, quoted, 

113 

Mozley, 1 Rev. T., on Gainsborough 

town, 86 
Music in Puritan service, 348 

Naunton, Secretary, and Brownist 

printing, 160, seq. 
Netherlands Republic, foundation of, 

Nevile, Gervase, 97 
Newbury, Separatists at, 21 
New England. See also America, 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Ply- 
mouth. 

attempt to establish an Episcopal 

Church in, 243, seq. 
first child born in, 206 
first Puritan exodus to, 184, seq. 
importance of the minister in, 350, 
legislature in, 304, seq. 
Lincolnshire and Dorchester, emi- 
gration to, 272, seq. 
picture of worship in, 344-50 
second Puritan exodus to, 265, 

seq. 
third Puritan exodus to, 295, seq. 
New England Colonies, Confederation 
of, Zl\,seq. 



New Haven founded, 325 
New Plymouth, 262 
Norwich, Congregationalism at, 32 
pastors of the church at, 95 

Oldham's revolt, 245 

expulsion, 247 
Ordination service, 285 

Partryche, martyr, 26 

Patent of land granted to colonists^ 

224 
Penry, John, Welsh martyr, 114 
Pequot Indians, overthrow of, 322 
Perkins, William, 95 
Persecution of heretics or Separatists, 
20, 22, 24 

of Scrooby Brethren, 97- 103 

Piers Plowman, 18 

Pilgrim Fathers. See also Leyden 
Brethren, Pilgrim Settlers, Plymouth 
Colony, Puritans, and Scrooby 
Brethren, 

character of leaders, 307, 354 

four pioneers, 116 

departure from Holland, 191, seq. 

their voyage, 199 

sight Cape Cod, 200 

their compact, names of signers, 

202 
number of, 240 
Pilgrim Settlers. See also Pilgrim 
Fathers, Plymouth Colony, Puritans, 
first expedition in New England, 
205 
conflict with Indians, 206, 227, 

233' 321, 339 
land on Plymouth Rock, 207 
welcomed by Indians, 213, seq. 
troubles and hardships, 211, 2I7> 

223, 235, 302 
treaty with Indians, 216 
defend Massasoit, 222 
visit Massachusetts Bay, 222 
" Pilgrimage of Grace," the, 74 
Plymouth Colony. See also Pilgrim 
Settlers and Puritans 

agreement with Adventurers, 257 
attempt to introduce Episcopali- 
anism, 243, seq. 



366 



INDEX. 



Plymouth Colony — continiced. 

breach with Board of Merchant 

Adventurers, 249 
communistic system in, 234 
ejection of Episcopalians, 247 
form of government, 240 
growing prosperity, 255 
its progress, 327, seq. 
mortality, 260 

relations with Massachusetts, 329, 
seq. 
Plymouth Company revived, 186 

Plantation, 209-237 

Rock reached, 207 

Popish ceremonies in 1507 ... 27 
Post system, early English, 61, seq. 
Post, the office of, 64 
Prayer, remarkable answer to, 237 
Preachers, Bernard's advice to, 82 
Preaching, lack of, 28 

, controversy on lay, 152, seq. 

Predestination, strife concerning, 133 
Presbyterian government versus Epis- 
copal, 290, seq. 
Presbyterianism in the Bermudas, 179 
Priestly system, early revolt against the, 

17-21, 35 
Printing, Brownist, in Holland, 160, 

seq. 
Prison reformer, an early, 81 
Protestant exiles, fellowship of, 24 
Protestantism, insurrection against, 74 
Psalms in Puritan worship, 348 
Puritan Colony (^see also Plymouth 

Colony), basis of its constitution, 201 
Patent of land granted, 224 
Puritan clergy, their zeal and influence, 

76 
community in New England ; its 

characteristics, 341, seq. 

discipline in New England, 351 

exodus to New England, the 

second, 265, seq. 

■ exodus ceases, 325 

leaders ; their greatness, 354 

" narrowness," 353-6 

worship in New England, 344-50 

Puritans, see also Scrooby Brethren, 
and the Virginia Company, 1 74, seq. 
first idea of founding a colony, 169 



Puritans — continued. 

decide upon Virginia, 182 
Laud's treatment of, 270 
not Separatists, 270 

QuiNNiPiACK Settlement, 325 

Raleigh, Walter, quoted, 58 
Randolph, Thomas, Postmaster-Gen- 
eral, 61 
Rassieres, Isaac de, 260, seq. 
Reformation, hostility against the, 74 
pioneers of the, 17 
principles, 16 
seeds of the, 19 
slow spread of the, 26 
share of East England in the, 266 
Reform Church of Holland, 254 
Religious teaching, lack of, 28 
Rembrandt's testimony to the Gospel, 

123 
Remonstrants, 133 
Rich, Lord, 36 

Richardson, Mr., of Bawtry, 69 
Ritual, questions of, in New England 

churches, 287, seq. 
Robinson, Archdeacon, 95 
Robinson, John, 94, seq. 
at Norwich, 95 
in Leyden, 124-128 
his charge to pilgrim band, 196 
his intellectual eminence, 132, 137 
his saintly character, 94 
his writings, 83, 95, 100, 128, 131, 

136, seq. 
in defence of the Brownists, 154 
on Church Government, 128, 145, 

seq. 
on the Church of England, 156 
on the Church at Leyden, 130 
on lay-preaching, 152 
on the military spirit, 242 
on Separation, 142 
Robinson, Isaac, 253 
Romish practices prevalent in 1 507 ... 27 
Rough, John, 22, 31 
Rural economy, early British, 258 

Sabbath observance, compulsory, 173 
profanation among the Dutch, 159 



il 



INDEX. 



367 



'Salem, 272, 275 

arrival of Puritans at, 284 
-Salem Church ; its first pastor, 285 

troubles in, 287 
Salem covenant, the, 286 
Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 275 
Samoset the Indian, 213 
Sandys, Sir Edwin, 172 
Scrooby, 40, seq. 

antiquity of, 45 

Church, 46 

Palace, 49, 52 

centre of anti-protestant rebellion, 

75 
formation of the church at, 92 
Wolsey at, 50 
5crooby Brethren ; arrival in Holland, 
lio 
persecution of, 97, 100 
resolve to emigrate, 99, 106 
captured in the attempt, 103, 108 
resolve to move to Leyden, 120 
their Meeting House, Leyden, 124 
Separatism, early organisation of, 20 
Separatists, see also Scrooby Brethren, 
in New England Churches, 288, j^^. 
first voyage across the Atlantic, 

116 
increase of, 22 
in London, 22 
Shepard, Thomas, 315-317 
U Sherman, William, 280 
Silvester, Mr., of Alkley, 69 
Skelton, Samuel, 277 

chosen pastor of Salem Church, 
285 
Smyth, John, of Gainsborough, 83, 
88-92 

his last book, 91 
Speedwell, the ship ; departure of, 194 
springs a leak, 198 
size of, 188 
Standish, Miles, 131, 205, 211 

appointed military commander, 

212 
Robinson's fears of, 242 
visits England, 251 
his death, 337 
Stanhope, Sir John, Postmaster- 
General, 59 



Staresmore, Sabin, 178 

Statute against heretics, 20 

Still, Dr., 36 

Stoke, Separatists at, 22 

Suffolk's contribution to Puritanism, 

267 
Summer Islands, Presbyterianism in 

the, 179 
Superstitions at Bury St. Edmunds, 34 
Symmes, Zachary, 314 
Symson, Cuthbert, 22, 31 

Martyrdom of, 24 
Synod of Dort, origin of, 135 

Talbot, the ship, 279, 283 
Tattershall Castle, 268 
Thacker, Elias, 33, 35 
Tisquantum, Indian, 214, 219 

death of, 229 
Tithing man, his office, 352 
Toller, Thomas, 84 

' Undertakers,' the, 257 
Upcharde of Bocking, 21 

Virgil and religion, 353 
Virginia, Church discipline in, 173 
Virginia Company, the, 171, seq. 

crisis in, 184, seq. 
Virginian settlers massacred, 227 
Voyage of the first Pilgrims, 199 

Weavers, pioneers of the Reformation, 

17 
Wesley's birthplace, 78 
Wessagusset. See also Weymouth, 243 

Colony started at, 229 

troubles at, 230 
Weymouth. See Wessagusset. 
White, Roger, on John Robinson, 252 
Whiting, Samuel, 315 
Whittier quoted, 345 
Wickliff, originator of Free Church 
influence, 19 

date of his death, 20 
William of Occam, 18 
Will of Robert Bradfurth, 69 
Wilson, John, his conversion to 

Puritanism, 313 
• , Lambert, 282 



^ 



■^ 



368 



INDEX. 



Winslow, Edward, 131, 229 
receives Indian Chief, 215 
his death, 337 

Winthrop, John, 104, 275 

elected governor of Massachusetts 

Bay Co., 296 
sketch of his life, 296-299 
voyage to New England, 299-301 
death of, 337 

Wolsey, Cardinal, 50, seq. 

Wolstenholme, Sir John, 17S 

Worcester, rise of independent thought 
in, 17 

Wordsworth quoted, 4, 18 

AVorksop, its Vicar, 77 



Worship, form of at Salem, 287 / >- 
freedom of, early asserted, 15-21 
in New England, picture of, 
344-50 

Wray, Sir Christopher, 35 

Wright, Robert, 37 

Yale University, foundation of, 338 
Yates, John, on lay-preaching, 152, 

seq. 
Yeomen, social position of Elizabethan, 

69 

Zealand, congregational church at, 32 
Zouch, Sir William, 165 



THE END. 



LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS. 



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